King’s Dominion Trip from Jonathan Pretus on Vimeo.

After about three months of rehearsing, we finally played The Beatles’ “Abbey Rd” medley (Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End.) It’s something I always wanted to do, and was so excited when the band decided to learn it. When we finally played it in DC, I felt like we finished a marathon. It sounds MEGA!! I love it.

Took some nice walks around NYC. Griff actually lived in the Chelsea hotel for a bit in the 80′s (the rock troubadour that he is), so he had some cool stories. Saw some great old friends in DC and Boston. If you get a chance in DC, go get a burger at Good Stuff Eatery. Amazing.

Griff and I actually have done a bit of writing together recently. Not sure where some of it’ll end up, but we did do a little 60 sec quasi-instrumental, modern Beach Boys type tune for submission for a Chrysler ad. Keep the fingers crossed.

A day off outside Richmond today. Rest of the band is gone, but I’m going with the crew to King’s Dominion to get our amusment park on. Will share some pics and vid later. Feel like Clark Griswold. First ones here!

JP

Some of the gang went to the movies today to see Star Trek. Took the opportunity to enjoy some nice quiet time. Watched a documentary called “Dig!” It’s about The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, how they came up in the same scene, were good friends, then when the Dandys took off, the singer from BJM who was already a unstable, just lost his shit. Great film for music fans and folks that enjoy an interesting hour and a half. Made me want to listen to some Dandys again. Climate Control, my high school band, did a cover of “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth” back in the day. And I always loved “We Used To Be Friends.” Good stuff.

Been taking some cool pictures of cool stuff. Can’t find the cable for my camera though, so I can’t upload any of em yet. But I will as soon as I can.

Scored a copy of the Red Rockers’ “Schizophrenic Circus” on vinyl in Boulder. The guy wanted $5. I told him “why dont I give you $3, and I’ll give the other $2 to Griff?” He didn’t go for it. Oh well.

Til next time!

JP

Jazz Fest was splendid. Absolutely splendid. A beautiful day, a great crowd. We played a really good set, very tight, full on rock. Did “I Can Tell” with a couple of the Bonerama guys. Been friends with Mark Mullins for a long time, quite an honor to play at Jazz Fest with him after all these years. Might not be here without him. And the always brilliant Kevin George, a.k.a. The Butterscotch Stallion joined us on drums during Jenny. He looked immaculate. Would have liked to see some other stuff pop up in the set, stuff I think we’re playing really well (Outside Looking In, I Told Ya, Helter Skelter, etc), but at the end of the day, it’s not my call. Oh well. Here’s some pics taken by my beautiful wife and mr. Will Byington….enjoy!

Rockin the fest crowd

Artsy rock

Victory!

Actor MC Gainey, longtime friend and fan of the band

Caught Death Cab for Cutie later that night at the CAC in NOLA. They were great live, much better than I anticipated. Great show.

So now we’re heading out. Gonna be a good summer for us. Got some fun stuff coming up. There’s some cool plans being discussed, but Im not gonna say anything about them. Cuz when you do that, and nothing comes of it, you look like an idiot. Oh well.

If you get a chance, enjoy the following:
Coconut Records – Davy (This is Jason Schwartzman’s musical project, it’s great)
Noel Gallagher – The Dreams We Have As Children (iTunes live acoustic album, wonderful)
Steve Martin – Born Standing Up (been out for a while, picked it up in Oxford and have been throughly enjoying it.)

JP

P.S. This blog will be moving soon to www.jonathanpretus.com, not sure when though. The site will feature my music, my art, some other cool stuff. Stay tuned for that!!

Julsey came out a couple days of shows. It’s always nice to have her with me on the road. She keeps me sane and it always seems that when she’s out there, I find myself at a point where sanity is almost gone. Thank god for my lovely wife.

After the BR show, she and I hauled ass to NOLA in effort to catch the Fall Out Boy show at UNO (Yeah, I like Fall Out Boy, so shut up and deal with it). Had managed to score a couple spots on the guest list, knowing that if we made it, we’d probablly only catch the FOB set. Hit Kenner and my brother texted to tell me they were already 6 songs in. Went for it anyway, got there only to find the box office closed. Talked to a couple arena employees, pleaded my case. Sadly, no avail. Didn’t really have the gumption to pull the “I’m in Cowboy Mouth” line. Don’t like to be that kind of guy anyway. Went home, had some wine, and watched the Hornets get stomped in Game 1.

Got 10 days off. Lots of stuff I want to keep doing. Got asked to contribute a song to a friend of mine’s indie film. Should be interesting to see what I come up with. As long as I don’t get sucked into too many episodes of “My Super Sweet Sixteen,” I think I’ll be able to come up with something cool.

“LoveDrum”
Acrylic, oil, house paint, and marker on 24″ used REMO bass drum head.

“Journey Man”
16X20 Acrylic and paint stick on canvas

“Honey I Know”
24×30 Acrylic and paint stick on canvas. Can be hung purple side up or blue side up.

“Day and Night (You Are The One)”
24×30, Acrylic and paint stick on canvas. Can be hung green side up or black side up.

“Love Guitar”
Acrylic, oil, paint stick on vintage classical guitar. Not for sale.

“Red Flower Guitar”
Acrylic on vintage classical guitar.

“Smoke, Smoke, Smoke”
32×40 Acrylic on canvas. Not for sale.

Thanks for looking. Keep checking back for more updates!!

Jonathan Pretus

Had a good weekend. Was invited by the good folks at Storyville to be a special guest at their 2nd ever Fashion Show. Got to be one of the shirt models. My old amigo Stephen Turner played with me, we did an acoustic version of a song called “Running From Disaster.” He and I used to be in tWeezer together back in the day. We’ve been talking about doing some stuff together for a while. Talked more intently about it after the show.
Sometimes people just click when playing together; he and I do. Had a great time playing with him. Thinking it’s time to start doing it more.




Finally got some professional photos of my art. Hoping to have them up later this week. I think I’m also going to have a few pieces up in the new Storyville store, opening on Magazine St. this weekend. Sweet!!

Here’s what’s weird…I signed up for Twitter like, 8 or 9 months ago, and kinda lost interest in it. Why is it blowing up now? Oh well. I’ve gotten back on the Twitter Train, so you can keep tabs of it over at http://twitter.com/jpretus.

Enjoy!

Day 3: We started our morning out heading to airport, and to fly out to JSS Shield. As you can see in the picture, locals loaded our gear onto a pallet while we stood around. Outside the airport were several bunkers where Uday and Qusay Hussein housed their planes. We bombed the bejesus out of them, and they stand there all destroyed, a symbol of how badass our army is. Finally getting to put on our sweet kevlar vests and helmets, we boarded a C130 with about 60 troops. This plane is a mammoth, and possibly one of the most uncomfortable things to sit on ever created. When landing, they do a combat landing. Instead of your normal commercial plane landing, on a nice, long decent, you pretty much just dip and dive and shuck and jive to the ground, in order to avoid any potential fire from the enemy. Talk about flying the friendly skies.

Once we landed there, we hopped in these intense armored vehicles called MRAPS. Serious stuff, these things. Think a Hummer on HGH. We had about a 2 hour drive to the base, during which we discovered that the MRAP is possibly the 2nd most uncomfortable thing to sit in.

We got there, set up in an area that is essentially a rec area (basketball court type area). The crowd was quite diverse, Americans, Ugandans, Iraqis. Outside the walls of the base, a big number of Iraqi civilians and soldiers stood on top of a roof and watched the show. The Americans got right into the show, the others took a while, but eventually they were dancing and screaming and having just as much fun as everyone else. After the show, we were given another coin, this one for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pretty neat.

That night we began our lodging and one of Saddam’s many palaces. It’s a big ornate place, with big ornate furniture. Impressive to say the least. We ended up actually sleeping in trailers outside the palace. Not really knowing what to expect wherever we go, I’m just glad to have a pillow and a roof over my head.

Day 4:

Woke up in the morning, and hit golf balls off his back porch into the lake surrounding his palaces. How’s this for messed up…while Saddam was building his palaces, he rerouted the water from Baghdad to fill his manmade lakes. It’s a symbol of power and wealth to live on the water here. In doing so, he managed to ruin many farmers’ land and livestock. Then he blamed it on the Americans. Only after he was killed did the people find out the truth. Also, he and his posse had a belief that they could do whatever they wanted on the water, so they often brought people there to be killed, tortured, raped, etc. Classy. So it seems fitting that we hit some golf balls into his water. Jerkface.

Finally boarding our first blackhawk helpicopter. Now this is a cool experience. These things are packing heat on the sides, 2 gunners constantly on the lookout. We flew to the base at Sadr City. Not long ago, this place was the most dangerous place in Baghdad. It’s built essentially right outside of the slums of Baghdad, and was the hotspot for battle for quite a while. Took a tour of the base, met alot of the soldiers there, including all the guys in the Aid Room (medics), who were super cool guys. Played the show in a courtyard. These shows all seem to kinda start out the same. Everyone is sitting on benches or chairs about 10 or 20 feet from us. We start playing and after about 20 minutes, they’re getting closer and closer to the stage and starting to cut loose, and by the end, they’re all going nuts. Love it. They all tell us how much they need to have some fun like this and get their minds off of the constant grind they go through. I’m glad I can be a part of that for them.

After that, we drove to a base called UR for a night show. Apparantly Ur is now one of the current hot spots for action. The army postal service won’t go out there. Awesome, let’s do this. A very quite, on edge type place. They’ve had several attacks quite recently. While we’re setting up, Regina and I are talking with Bob, a civilian who works for the Army guiding bands around, kind of the liason between Army folks and us common folk. So while we’re talking, having a nice little convo….”POP! POP! POP POP POP POP!” Gunfire. Of the 30 or so soldiers who were sitting in the area we’re playing, about 15 or so jump up, grab their guns and go running. Regina and I stand there thinking “um….where do WE go? Where’s our vest and helmet? Hello?” Now while this happens, there’s still about 15 soldiers sitting on couches and beanbags. Dwight, who always has words of wisdom that can only come from a Mississippi guy, says, “Well, when they guys in the bean bags get up, then I’ll worry about it.” Sure enough, the soldiers came back after about 2 minutes. “There’s nothing to worry about,” they tell us. If they say it, that’s good enough for me.

Pre show, the officer in charge there tells us he’s so glad we made it, no other band ever has or ever has wanted to. But if we hear or see and fire of blasts, they’ll be sure to escort us quickly to safety. Awesome, let’s do this. Show goes off without a hitch thankfully. Another success.

Day 5:

Nice, an off day! We all finally get to sleep in a bit, feeling fresh, hitting a few more golf balls. I hit one over the lake last night into the other palace across the way. Sweet! We get to go out to the Special Ops shooting range and play with their guns. There we were, musicians firing automatic weapons, blowing the hell out of targets. Each gun was more badass than the next. The guys explained how they all work and were extremely cool. As nice as they are, it’s neat to know that they could tear me limb from limb if they chose to. Glad I’m on their team. One the guys kinda looked like Shouppe, my old bass player from TGD. Here we are after blowing some stuff away… During our driving that day, we really got to understood that Saddam had a big thing for palaces. He had quite alot of them. Several vacation palaces, hunting palaces, a palace that served essentially as a harem. Again, classy. When he was captured and killed, he was working on one that he called the “Victory Over America” palace. It sits unfinished. Booya. Went to a little gathering that evening with some of the Special Ops guys, where they were cooking out and playing Rock Band. It’s great to see these guys get to cut loose and have a bit of fun. They’ve got alot on their plates, they deserve it.

Bull...Elephant....what's the difference?

Day 6:

This morning we headed out to Huseinayah, another base, about a 45 minute blackhawk ride from our new lodging in the Special Ops area. Got up and set up in the DFAC (dining facility) for our first indoor show of the tour. Find out that we’d be playing during their lunch. So we start playing, essentially to a cafeteria full of soldiers. Like a bizzare high school talent show. I really didn’t know how this show would go over, but as is par for the course, by the end, it was great, everyone was going crazy, Americans, Ugandans, Iraqis. A great show. Some really nice folks. Big success.

We’d started noticing yesterday that it seemed to be getting a bit overcast. Rumor was a sandstorm was coming. Well, it’s here. We’re actually stuck at Huseinayah, all flights are grounded. It was an erie orangish color all day, and by early evening you could hardly see 200 yards infront of you. It’s pretty dusty out there. And this isn’t even as bad as it gets. Oh well. Bought all 6 Rocky movies and all 4 Rambo’s for $5. Score!

After that, we headed out to Camp Virginia for our show. There’s actually this really cool show called Man Caves, on the DIY network, and on one episode I recently saw, they renovated a camp’s USO station. Well, it was Camp Virginia. I immediate recognized it. Very sweet digs.

Finally set up with our PODS to do the show. It’s a bit different not having our amps with us, and it took us some time to get the sounds we wanted perfected. Not having the sound of the amps takes a bit of getting used to, but we’ll keep going at it.

We played to a bit smaller crowd than we thought. Camp Virginia is the first stop for troops about to deploy, and the last stop for troops about to go home, so the crowds wane a bit. Played for about 100 troops. They were all a bit apprehensive at first, but as usual, by the end they were all jumping up and down and screaming. Afterwards, we went and met the troops, signed some stuff, including a very cool travel guitar, and took some pictures. Some really great folks we met. Despite whatever your political leanings may be, you have to respect, admire, and appreciate what these brave men and women do for our country.

We’re off to more magical places today. I finally seem to have gotten a handle on my new camera. So expect more pics to come in the next blog. Just gotta get someone to take some of ME for a change!

Ciao!!

Watched Slumdog Millionaire on the first plane. What a fantastic movie. I totally get the hype.

We’re here on a base in Kuwait at the moment. Didn’t see much coming in as it was night time. In the morning, this land looks flatter than New Orleans could ever be. Not a cloud in the sky. The weather is actually quite nice. We are going out to another base tonight to play a show. Should be about 300 or 400 soldiers there. We’re all quite excited to get out and perform for them.

Interestingly, the bed in my room is almost exactly like the bed slept on in Kirby Smith my first year at LSU.

My camera crapped out on me yesterday at Amsterdam airport. Gonna go buy a new one when the PX opens at 0900. See that? I’m using cool military lingo. How bout that?

Never in a million years did I think I’d find myself here. Let’s go explore!