Look Ma, I'm on TV.....AGAIN!

If you didn't see the Austin City Limits with Brandi Carlile when it aired on PBS, check it out here.  Also, I met a nice woman from Austin last night at the restaurant who told me that ACL now has a new studio, so I was one of the last people to perform in the old one on campus.  I got a little verklempt.  

The highlight of this particular performance for me was at 47:47 when Brandi and I made the rock face at each other:

Look Ma, I'm on TV!

I recently appeared with my friend Brendan James on Rachel Ray's TV show. Click here to see it.  Pay extra special attention at 2:46, when Rachel gazes at me longingly with her fetching smile.

Also, last spring, I played Austin City Limits with Brandi Carlile.  This episode will be aired November 13 on your local PBS station.  Here's the link to their website.

If anyone could put this stuff up on youtube when it comes out I'd be much obliged, so that I can embed it on my site here.  

Much more exciting news is forthcoming, including an upcoming tour with Elizabeth and the Catapult, so stay tuned!

Mad Man

                                                   

Ladies and Gentlemen, Please make yourself at home here at my website.  I'm here to set your mind and body at ease.  Just, sit back, relax, and click away.  I have a new tune under the "tunes" tab, with more to come.  I also have rewritten my bio and I'll be putting up information about shows that I'm playing, both by myself and with other people.  I love you.

Andrew Bird Show

Holy Moly.  I just saw Andrew Bird and Calexico at Radio City Music Hall.  Calexico were fantastic.  It was nice to see them, because they had been playing right across the street from Vienna Teng when we played in Tuscon, but I didn't get a chance to check them out.  Very cool.  Their pop/flamenco/tejano chimichanga is really tasty.  

What can I say about Andrew Bird that hasn't already been said?  He blows me away every time I see him.  I first saw him at the Blind Tiger patio in Charleston with the Bowl of Fire.  Awesomely quirky Gypsy Jazz original tunes and such at a place in charleston that hasn't really been a  music venue before or since, to my knowledge. (My good buddy Adam Berry promoted that show, I think.  Andrew was Adam's violin teacher when he lived in Chicago.)  Then, I saw him at the Village Tavern in Mt. Pleasant, the best Indie Rock club disguised as a redneck southern dive/sports bar ever.  He was playing with a drummer (Kevin O'Donnell, I think) and his trusty Line 6 looping pedal.  This was when I really became a big fan.  Mysterious Production of Eggs had recently dropped and I bought it and Weather Systems from Andrew himself.  He was really getting good at the looping stuff at this show.  I couldn't believe how he could create a full string orchestra in just a few seconds with his violin and that green stompbox.  And the third time I saw him was a few hours ago at Radio City.  Wow.  He was really excited to play there, and I was equally excited to see him there.  It's nice and rare when genuine talent and ingenuity are rewarded, when cream really does rise to the top.  

I felt like I was visiting another planet watching him play.  He makes all of that looping shit look so easy, and let me tell you, it isn't.  he's definitely put his time in.  His music is so beautiful and so playful and so inspiring.  makes me want to hole up in my room all summer and play with my music toys and craft my own world of tunes and weirdness.  While I may not hole up, that is my plan for the summer: write WWII.  I don't know whether it'll be another country oriented singer/songwriter album, or a Sigur Ros style ambient album, or a retro heavy metal album or some hybrid of those.  I really just want to mess around, love whatever I'm doing and see which ideas win.  I'm using this website/blog as a conduit to share some of what I'm working on with you, dear reader.  My site will have a new look and feel in the not too distant future, and will likely be a user friendly platform for me to share my ideas.  

I totally enjoyed visiting Planet Bird.  I look forward to exploring Planet WW this summer.

Goodbye!

My Epic blog post about...AUSTRIA!!

Hey Kids! I've missed you! I'm real sorry this took so long to get posted.  But hold on to your hats: this is a loooooong one, because I need plenty of time to tell you all about my new favorite country:

AUSTRIA!!!!(cue "sound of music" theme)

(needle scratching off of record)Whoa whoa whoa...Hold up just a minute. What the shit? Let's see that last picture again:

What in God's name is that!!?? Is this where HR Pufnstuf and Austin Powers conceived their illicit love child?

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

First, we arrived in Linz. It was rainy and nasty out, but of course we managed to find a nice place to eat.

That was a good beer. And this was a crazy woman:

She started making lots of noise and got kicked out. You keep on partying, grandma! (That's Gert's left ear in the foreground)

Dinner was quite delicious. And for dessert, what else:

A Linzer Torte!

When in Linz...

...right? Yummy!

Just to give you an idea of how nicely we were treated all over Europe, here's our backstage spread in Linz:

That looks pretty good, eh?  But wait, where's the lunch meat?

"I don't know where your lunch meat is, but here's all mine!  And I ain't giving you any of it...BITCH!!!"

Our venue was called the Altes Posthof, which means "Old Post Station"  (I now think I'm gonna open up a venue called "Old McDonald's")

Aren't those some peaceful cushions to plant your fat hippie ass in?

True story: after the gig, we were out chatting with our lovely audience, and some cute girls came to get their picture made with us.  So I ask, "Hey, is there anything fun to do  in Linz on thursday night?"  To which they reply, "Yes." (one mississippi, two mississippi) "Okay we have to go...Good bye!"

So there are fun things to do in Linz, but you aren't going to tell me what/where they are.  SIGH.

The following day, we arrived in Vienna! (Insert your own lame "Oh, Vienna's in Vienna" joke here)  Wow.  What a beautiful city!  I want to live here.

After checking into our hotel, we took a nice little walk.  The first thing we saw was the Rathaus,

which means Rat House.  Thems must be some big ol' rats who live there.  They could put a hurtin on the NYC subway rats!

Then we happened upon an open air market

My German is both rusty and nearly non-existant, but I'm guessing that the sign says, "Old Vienna East Market".....or maybe Easter market:

The kids love Easter over here.  I don't know what they do for Christmas, but I can't imagine it's bigger than Easter.

At the market, I got some hot chocolate!

Yum Yum, gimme some:

Okay, so she's basically just mashing a chocolate bar in hot milk.  How's it taste?

Not too bad.  It tastes better when my pinky's stuck out like that.  What's Alex doing?

"Peek a Boo!"

 

 

 

 

 

"Oh Great Big Hunka Meat, how I long for thee!"

Ready for some cuteness?

"LOOK AT DA BUNNEEEEEZZZZZZZ!!!!"

While I was snapping this photo, I was saying how the bunny in the lower right corner was fat.  There were some Austiran folks standing beside me who took offense to/issue with what I was saying: "Oh zat bunny ist nein fatten" or some such nonsense, but look here:

1. It's a damn bunny.  And we all know from nursery rhymes that bunnies have no feelings.

2. It's a German speaking bunny, so even if it should understand human speech, and suddenly develop human feelings that might be hurt regarding my comments about it's weight, there's no way would it understand english.

3. It's kind of fat, right?  I mean it's flippin huge, right?  That's one fat ass bunny.....right!!!!???

Anyhow, we wandered over to St. Stephen's Cathedral and got some religion.

Can I get an Amen?  I was actually here in 1992, the very first time I ever came to Europe.  We were only in Vienna for an afternoon, and I just happened to bump into Jenny Goodrum, a high school classmate, right in front of the cathedral.  True story.  Where are you now, Jenny?  I miss you, Jennay!

We then marched right over to Mozart's apartment.

Mozart wasn't there.  Cause he's dead.  But I think he possessed all of us, cause we had the best show of the european tour here in Vienna.

While walking past St. Stephen's again, we saw the most inventive panhandlers/buskers ever:

Ain't that sweet, they just wanna hug us!

Huggies!

Listen, man, you're holding the "free hugs" sign, so you'd better put your homophobia aside and hug a dude, okay?

Did I say they were the most inventive panhandler/buskers ever?  I'm sorry, I meant that these guys were:

They were doing the Electric Boogaloo to classical music.  Breakdance meets Ballet.  It was quite beautiful.  I gave them 20 euro cents, which equals $100.

We got a little lost on the way back to the hotel.  So we jumped in a cab and met Gert:

Who had gotten trapped inside a computer screen, a la Max Headroom. (For you younguns who don't know who he was, educate yourself)  We saved him from the clutches of the Master Control Program (another obscure '80s reference to TRON, which I saw in the fucking theater and which led me to become a ninja at throwing frisbees with my friend, Mike Winger. Damn, I'm old!) and headed to Porgy and Bess, our venue for the evening:

That's right, Wong is pumped up cause he knows we're going to have a great gig tonight.  And do you want to know why?  Because, while we're onstage, Mozart is going to infiltrate our brains!!  From beyond the grave.  Seriously.  Check it out:

"Wow, I feel kind of funny, like an 18th century master composer is boring his way through my skull"

"Oh my God, Ward, I feel the same thing!  Now I have ultimate rocking powers!!  LET'S ROCK!! How's Vienna doing?"

 

"WHATEVER YOU WANT, WHATEVER YOU WANT WHATEVERYOUWANTISFINEBYMEEEEEEE....come on boys, catch up!!  The Mozart boreworm infected my brain 5 minutes ago and I'm leaving you in the dust!"

We rocked...so hard.  Much thanks to Miriam, who took the pictures of us performing.

That's Miriam in the middle, and Kathy (Katarina) on the left.  They took a picture with me, too:

"Ward smells funny!"

This was in the lobby of our hotel, after gig, and before we went out on the town to have a party.  See, when we asked Miriam and Katarina if there were fun things to do in Vienna, they said, "Yes-Please let us show you our fun city"  And so they did:

We had a lovely drink at the Museum Bar, which was actually located in a museum.  Them Austrians are so damn cultured!   Kathy's cousin, Florian, and his wife, Maria, joined us for the festivities.

After a drink or two (or 3, or 7 or akl;dfsj890v[23u) we were getting a little hungry.  Gert had told us about the Kasewurst, sausages with cheese.  So we were on a mission.  We walked underground to find this delicacy.

German quiz: what does this mean?  National debt?  Help me out!  

OOH, that scotch is running through me like a bat out of hell.  Have to pee, really soon.  But, for some reason, I also really want to listen to some Puccini, or Verdi or something.  Hmmm, what to do what to do?

Thank God, The opera toilet!  Perfect!  I've always wanted to take a dump while belting out "Se Vuol Ballare" from Le Nozze di Figaro!  Let's celebrate by reenacting Steve O's choreography from "Dancing with the Stars"

What a twirl! But it looks like Alex and Vienna are ready to take us down:

They mean serious business!  Hey, why don't we take a promo band shot for our next tour?

I'm writing to Obama to make sure he knows that we need Opera Toilets here in the US and A.

Aaah, at last we find the Kasewurst place!

"Bitte ein kase wurst."

"VIELEN DONKEY!!!!!"

Wow.  That is terrifying.

For some reason, we decided to go to two different sausage places and do a taste test.

Alex got his wurst here.  Looks a little classier than my state fair looking place, right?  But you know, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.  His place may have looked cooler on the outside, but is the wurst really better?

Yes. It is.  Mine tastes like a 7 Eleven Cheeseburger dog compared to his.  Dammit.  Oh well, we're all friends here, and we're enjoying some Budweisers.  Not Anheiser Busch ones, the original ones from the Czech republic.

Well, it's been a long, very fun, rewarding day in Vienna.  But it's time to go to sleep.  We hail a cab, and the driver informs us that we can't have open beers while he's driving.  So we slam them.  Well done, folks!   Let's do an imitation of the Beastie Boys before we go to bed:

Nighty Nite, Yo!

Oh I don't wanna leave Vienna!  But wait, we're going to St. Veit?  Where the hell's that?  Oh, that's the place with the acid flashback hotel!

Trippy!

Let's check out the rad lobby:

Psychedelic, man!

Check out some of the lovely art:

Mmm hmm, very nice

Okay, a tree, a mermaid with a great rack?

Holy hell, this looks like something from Starship Troopers, who is responsible for all of this?

Ah, the Professor Ernst Fuchs.  We all know about my German skills, but I'm going to try to translate:

"This is an art gallery and hotel.  It's two things in one.  This hotel was designed by Ernst Fuchs, who is the emperor of the Fuchspalace.  Bow down, knave!

Ernst Fuchs was born in 1930 on the planet Zoltan.  He was teleported here through a wormhole to share his magical vision of gumdrops, boobies, and creatures from his home planet.  He studied art at the Art Academy in Vienna, but was expelled when he tried to probe his instructors in the boogiehole.

Here are a few more highlights from Ernst Fuchs's amazing life:

1972-Ernst Fuchs eats three sheets of LSD mixed with a lovely balsamic vinaigrette over a mixed green salad with psychedelic mushrooms, thus starting a trip lasting for over 37 years and counting.

1988-For the 100th birthday of Wilo Wagner, Fuchs jumps off of a hotel balcony screaming, "Ich Bin Ein Gelden Gott!!!!" into a pool of nutella.  Gets the preliminary idea for the Fuchpalaz in St. Veit.

1998-Celebrates the 10th anniversary of the "Nutella Plunge" by building a hotel in a quaint Austrian village using nothing but an easy bake oven and red white and blue frosting.

2007-Fuchs is seen wandering naked through the Austrian alps singing "Inagaddadavida" and biting the heads off of baby squirrels

Okay!

That's all well and good, but what do the rooms look like?

Well, I think you know what time it is:

After checking in, turning on and dropping out, we went to the venue:

This was the old Rathaus (City Hall).  Or maybe it's still the Rathaus, I don't know.  In any case, it was really beautiful.  Check the interior:

There's something really amazing about playing a concert in such a gorgeous setting.  

In the dressing room, there was some art displayed from some of the students in town:

A regular budding Ernst Fuchs, methinks.  Let's go for a walk!

Our pal, Andres, took us to the castle,

which was owned by Astrid, the baroness who put on the concert.  This was built in the 11th century.  Yes folks, that's around 1000 years ago!  Let's check it out:

That's Andres, with Alex and Vienna.  He's an amazing sculptor who displays his work here.

"But we've got the biggest balls of them all," sang Vienna quietly to herself.

Let's go inside, what do you say?

What a cool place.  After this we did soundcheck, and Astrid took us to a wonderful dinner.  We then proceeded to rock St. Veit's collective face off.  And then....we got drunk.  I was having too much fun to take lots of pictures, but check out Alex's 11:11 blog for a more detailed account of the evening.  Many many many thanks to Astrid, Andres, Michael, Nici, and all the St. Veiters for showing us a wonderful time!

And then, finally, we went to lovely Innsbruck.

Oh Austria, you were so good to us. And I love how un-PC you are:

Whew!  That blog took a lot out of me!  Sorry it took so long; it feels like I delivered a pair of 50lb twins!  I think I'm going to join twitter and just do short and sweet for a while, maybe.  Before I go, though, I want to thank you for reading, and encourage you to check back regularly, because I have 2 goals for the summer:

1. To give my website a long overdue overhaul.  This blog is hopefully just a little taste of fun stuff that's going to be happening here.  I'm planning on working with my homie Matt to redesign the site to make it more fun and user friendly (and probably relaunch it as wardwilliams.com).  I want to continue blogging and putting up silly pictures/videos/songs and whatnot, which brings me to goal #2:

2. To begin the highly anticipated follow up to my self titled record: "Ward Williams".  Working title: WW II.  My plan is to make a more stripped down record, partly because I think it'll sound cool and partly because I want to do it even more on my own and I don't know a lot about producing and stuff yet.  But I have hopes that it will be even better than the first one.  So keep coming back here and you can see what I'm up to in some way shape or form.  So give me some comments/feedback love.  And remember, I love you all tremendously!