West of Mars -- the Meet and Greet

So while ShapeShifter's busy takin' some time to themselves, not that they should or anything, it seems their techs went and got all antsy on us. Just like a lot of us ShapeShifter fans do when there's nothing new to report.

Instead of sitting around and moaning about how they can't wait until the band is active again, Bobby, Cookie, Creek, and Chuck decided to make some noise of their own.

That's right. These four brave souls who put up with my ShapeShifter boys night in and night out have decided to form their own band. They called themselves Tech Support, which is a clever enough name if you don't know what they do and the ways in which techs really do support the men they work for. The women, too.

So this new Tech Support band's busy playin' all the spots around Riverview. Never more than a day's drive away, just in case their bosses need 'em for something. You know: fix a string, tune something, tighten a drum head. Doesn't sound hard. But yours truly guesses that once you get used to the prima donna treatment, there's no going back.

Not that Chelle's calling those ShapeShifter boys prima donnas.

Well, okay, she is.

She'd love to do it in person, too. Face-to-face and all that. After all, how's a rock writer supposed to write about rock if she don't get a chance to listen to it?

That means that any of you who're thinkin' of takin' your pretty little selves out to Riverview to check out Tech Support live and in person, check with me before you jump in your rental car. Chelle here don't drive. She needs a lift to the gigs. And you can be there to watch what happens when she calls the ShapeShifter boys prima donnas to their faces.

I bet those Tech Support boys will laugh the whole time they're agreein' with me.


What? You STILL haven't joined the Monday Poetry Train? No rules, people, no rules! (or is that the problem?? Hmmm? Also, scroll down a post for a new thing I'd love to see the world join me in: Sunday Best. You decide what's best and talk about it on Sundays. How easy is that?

Labels: Chelle LaFleur, musicians, Poetry Train, Riverview USA

This time, it's OpenChannel at The Accidental Novelist who's tagged me.

Before I get to the meme, though, have you noticed how many cool bands are out there with women singers right now? Flyleaf and Evanescence are two of my favorites, of course. But there's also Coheed and Cambria and now I'm investigating Epica. Don't forget In This Moment, too. (they need to expand their site beyond Myspace!!) And yes, I know there's that whole recent tour with the women. How can I not have been following it???

My question for you radio people (Uhh, that'd be you who program my XM radio!): where's the airplay for these women?

Man, these girls make me proud to be a woman.

Now, on to the meme.

Instructions: When this meme is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside the tips you especially like.


Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.

After that, tag some other people. It was originally 10 others but I don't know 10 people who would do this. So make it 5-10. I'm changing the rules. Haha.

1. Look, read, and learn. ****-http://www.neonscent.com/

2. Be EXCELLENT to each other. ***-http://www.bushmackel.com/

3. Don’t let money change ya! *-http://www.therandomforest.info/

4. Always reply to your comments. ******-http://chattiekat.com/

5. Link liberally — it keeps you and your friends afloat in the Sea of Technorati. *****-http://chipsquips.com/

6. Don’t give up - persistence is fertile. **-http://www.velcro-city.co.uk/

7. Give link credit where credit is due. ******-http://www.sfsignal.com/

8. Pictures say a thousand words and can usually add to any post.***-http://scifichick.com/

9. Visit all the bloggers that leave comments for you - it’s nice to know who is reading! *****-http://stephaniesbooks.blogspot.com/

10. When commenting on others’ blogs, a few kind words go a long way. – ** http://shelflifeblog.blogspot.com/

11. When you’re starting out, comment on all the blogs you like to read; that way the bloggers will know that you exist! **;) http://astripedarmchair.blogspot.com

12. Make sure you check your links! * http://superfastreader.com By way of explanation–when you cut & paste the text of a meme, you don’t get the underlying links. If you just see text, you need to turn the text into links manually. If you see hyperlinks, you can cut & paste from the Page Source to get the HTML code and preserve the links. In Firefox, you can use Command/Apple-U to see this. The whole point of a meme is to spread link love, but you need more than just the text to do that.

13. Give your blog a theme/focus; make a niche for yourself. * http://www.theaccidentalnovelist.blogspot.com/

14. Don't judge your blog's success by hits or the length of your comment trail. What matters is what you put into it. westofmars.blogspot.com

Now, for some tags...

Sparky Duck
Sophisticated Writer

Labels: blogging tips meme, Flyleaf, meme, music, musicians

Have you been over to Rhian's poetry train? Have you jumped on???

Have you joined Dewey's comment game?

Are you ready for my summer reading contest???

Now, on to what you're here for. The fiction.




Now, you readers know that ol' Chelle LaFleur can bang her big fat head with the best of them. And you readers know that ol' Chelle LaFleur can rock out with the best of them. That's why Chelle LaFleur is so much more than just a music critic.

Chelle LaFleur's gotta earn her keep at this here Trumpet newspaper, and so Chelle got to go out one night and check out Temple of the Book, one of those three-man, acoustic bands where all the members wear their brown hair pulled back in ponytails and they all have John Lennon glasses on. The whole audience would be pale-skinned or else would be all dredlocked up. I just knew it.

Has Chelle told you lately that she's the world's stupidest journalist? Has she?

Temple of the Book is three dudes, yeah. They're not all acoustic, they don't wear ponytails and the only glasses were the ones they were drinking their beer out of. And they rock. Hard. Geoffrey, the guitarist, might be able to out head-bang some of you regulars, and that's no joking on Chelle's part.

I may have been the only dark face in the crowd, but don't think people don't know who Chelle LaFleur is. I been to lots of shows and seen lots of bands and that was the first time I got a shout-out from the band onstage. Well, okay, there was that time that the ShapeShifter boys started asking if I was there, but that was different. This was a band who was glad to see ol' Chelle, and who said they played harder 'cause I was there. I don't think praise gets no better than that.

The shame of all of this is that, typical of this city, no one came to see Temple of the Book. There were about thirty of us there. What's the matter with you people? Are you really dumb enough to think that our music clubs will stay open if no one shows up at them? Do you think these bands can make it and make a new name for the city without your support?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it can be hard to figure out what sort of music a band plays. Some of them don't do themselves any favors, picking those brainy names that makes them sound like they should be wearing John Lennon glasses. But don't a night checking out a new band beat that tired old TV show you didn't want to watch in the first place?

You rockers ought to get over yourselves and check this band out. Three guys: one guitar, one bass, one drummer. The bass player sings some of the smartest, most with-it lyrics I've heard. I know this first-hand not just 'cause I heard them, but because they wrote some of them down for me. Look here:

You say you mean it
You back it up with actions
And when push comes to shove
You push right on back


That's from the song called Braveheart. Yeah, it was a movie or tall tale or something. But think about it. Think what it's saying in today's world. You gonna let yourself be pushed around and made to live a life you don't want to live? You know how tired I am of hearing you people whine because someone's pushing on you and not letting you have your own way. Well, here's your power. Take it and make some changes already 'cause Chelle's sick of hearing the whining.

You heard it first, and you heard it here. Temple of the Book. Check them out.

Labels: Chelle LaFleur, creative writing, dewey, fiction, musicians, Poetry Train

Apparently, according to Blabbermouth.net, Gene Hoglan of Strapping Young Lad is in the studio with Dethklok creator Brendon Small, laying down tracks for a full-length album.

That rocks.

Now, where's the shirts????

Labels: Dethklok, music, musicians, rock and roll

Now, why aren't other cities' local scenes smart enough to do somethin' like this? I'm talkin' about what my favorite band's got going on in the city of Riverview this time. Don't be sad if you missed the news; they almost snuck this one past yours truly, herself. Almost.

Ready for this? It's brilliant. It's worth copying. They threw a musical Hanukkah party for the members of the local music scene. Anyone involved -- roadies, musicians, promoters, journalists -- could get in for a ten buck ticket that they had to get in advance and buy through KRVR, the radio station that's so high on the Riverview scene that Bobby Bands, himself, is trying to horn in on their turf. (I hear they had the balls to turn his ten bucks away, too.)

For fifty bucks more, you could jam onstage. With the sponsors of the night: ShapeShifter. And since everything from the food to the club to the labor was donated, all the money went to one of those "keep music in our schools" charities that are so hot right now.

Took me two days, but I got hold of ShapeShifter's Mitchell Voss. "It was Eric's idea, really," he said, and handed the phone over. For someone who usually lets his guitar talk for him, ShapeShifter's Eric Wallace had a lot to say. Here's some of it.

"Monday is the quietest day in the entertainment industry, so we picked it, figuring that no one would be committed elsewhere. And since Hanukkah runs for eight days, there's always a Monday during Hanukkah. We can do this for years to come, and I hope we will.

"Why Hanukkah if no one in the band's Jewish? Well, my dad and I were talking about this, wondering if the Jewish kids ever feel bad that Santa doesn't come to their houses--"

He got interrupted here by my favorite blabbermouth. "Look, Chelle. We have Christmas parties out the wazoo. New Year's Eve parties. You can't turn on a fucking radio without hearing Christmas carols until you're blue in the face and stuffing a CD in the player so fast, you break the fucking thing. It's all about Christmas around here."

"So we figured," Eric said. "That we'd honor the religion that was around before Christianity but gets drowned out this time of year. We'd have a Hanukkah party and celebrate our music scene at the same time. After all, Hanukkah's a holiday of rededication. It just seemed to fit with the idea of reminding everyone that we're still into the local scene. It doesn't matter how big we get; it all starts at the local level. Just like the rededication of the Jews' temple."

"And we managed to talk the cook into making potato pancakes for everyone, too," Mitchell laughed in my ear. Ooh, baby. Laugh away.

Focus, Chelle. This was a good thing. Over three hundred people turned out, and they filled the fifty spaces for that big old jam with the superstars themselves. That was an extra fifty bucks for that honor, remember. Once you do the math, you get a pretty nice $5500 for charity.

And then those ShapeShifter boys topped that. They matched the take, making a cool $11,000.

Eric said his father's church was also going to make a donation in the name of the Riverview Musician's Hanukkah Celebration, and is going to work throughout the year toward getting more of the city's religious folk of all denominations and faiths involved for next year. The funds won't stay in Riverview, either, but are going to Music Lives, a foundation that spreads the wealth and the message across the country. This is important, Mitchell told me, "because without music in the schools, some of us won't get to sing in the choir and find out that we can do more than croak. That's what I got out of choir. That and the chance to be around all those girls in their concert best. Man, that alone made being in the choir worth it."

So, c'mon. This is one bandwagon worth jumping on, and go figure that it's ShapeShifter leading the way. Again. Y'all laugh at my face, tellin' me I'm nothin' but a ShapeShifter groupie, but if they're doin' stuff that's this good, why aren't you one, too?

You heard it first and you heard it here: Musical Hanukkah Celebrations are going to be sweeping the country. Get involved now.



(a note from Susan: While Chelle LaFleur, our slightly single-minded journalist, and ShapeShifter are as fake as the Musical Hanukkah Celebration, the Music Lives Foundation isn't. Endorsed by Paul McCartney and Fidelity Investments, they're helping keep music in our community's schools. Check out their website; read the stats about how music helps our children. And if you've got an extra $50, for the price of a jam with ShapeShifter, you can make a positive impact on the world. If you can't do fifty, do what you can; their minimum is five. Go on. Skip that latte and donate instead. And be sure to tell them you heard about them here.)

Labels: challenge, charity, Chelle LaFleur, creative writing, donate, fiction, Hanukkah, music, musicians, rock and roll

Just wanted to wish a public get-well to Jason Newsted, who has long been one of my musical heroes and who I will probably always think of as one of the world's most photogenic men.

You can find the details in the last two paragraphs of the Blabbermouth article I've linked to in my headline.

Jason, as you recover, how about firing up the Chophouse again and exposing us to more brilliant stuff?

Labels: music, musicians, rock and roll

New Orleans club fixtures Jock La Feet played The Ninth Street Dive tonight to a packed house. Nothing new there; Jock La Feet is a band that, with a better name, oughta be out there on a bigger scale, sorta like Rat Catcher. I may have only been around this scene for a few short months and may have spent zero time on the far side of the levees, but I gotta tell you, if you don't think that Jock La Feet can compete nationally, you haven't heard Jock La Feet. Which makes me wonder if you're realy dumb enough to think you can read this review and feel like you were there.

After a write-up like that, what I got to say next will make you wonder. And that's 'cause at their record release party last night, Jock La Feet got showed up by this little band from somewhere West of the Mississippi, four dudes who rolled into town in their lead singer's dad's Ford Bronco, with the equally bad name of ShapeShifter and an even worse gimmick, where each band member identifies with an animal.

It's their music that makes these four guys -- two who seem to like their leather pants a little bit too much (was that dinner on them?), and two who seem even more bland than that -- stand out. Nothing could have made New Orleans ready for this band, and as you know, this is a city that's seen and weathered an awful lot.

Opening with "Take the Stage," ShapeShifter erupts with speed and sound, sort of like a meteor if it was racing toward the planet, bound and determined to make contact. And like flying space junk, you can't get away. Believe me, there were a few in the packed club who were dumb enough to try.

From that -- again, horribly titled -- song, ShapeShifter delivered a half-hour's worth of music, almost ten songs in all, and all available on the band's first record. Which, no surprise, they were selling out of the back of Daddy's Ford Bronco until the cops tried to arrest them for not having a permit. (They escaped by skipping town.)

I'm telling you here and now, this is a band you're gonna wanna watch. They got a lot of growing to do before they're half the band that Jock La Feet is, which means they have a ways yet before they're ready to tour like this again. Doesn't matter, though, 'cause they blew Jock and the boys two parishes over.

Remember the name: Chelle La Fleur. I told you here, and I told you first.

Labels: Chelle LaFleur, creative writing, fiction, musicians, ShapeShifter