Tieless in Dallas or Chez Badu....

Hey Gang sorry for the delay....  I am very Lazy when it comes to typing...

Sooooo.......  Flying to Dallas after spending time with the wife for two days. Yay!  I basically flew from LA  to Omaha after jamming all night with a certain bad ass musician.(blog later to come....) She was attending her sister's graduation there so I met up with her there.  Had a wonderful two Days in Omaha hung out with the in-laws and whatnot, and hopped on a plane to Dallas.  Land in Dallas, take a freaking $100 cab ride to the hotel, (What?)  just to be greeted by my Tour Manager saying "Yo we about to go to Eryka's.....  OMG!!!  I hurry up to my hotel room and take like a two minute shower,  (which if you've every lived with me you know his is impossible) get dressed and head down stairs.  I run to the Hotel bar take a double shot of Jameson to take the edge off.  We get to Eryka house....  Oh if y'all don't know who I mean by Eryka, I mean Miss Eryka on and on Badu.  She cooked dinner for us and it was dope.  We hung out, partied, ate, and then she spun records to close out the night....  Man it was so SURREAL!!!!

So, the next day is a show day.  Everything is normal so far.  I'm missing something!  Let's see if you can tell.  (I know I've allready given it away but lets have some fun)

One of these trombone players is not like the other...LOL.

 I DON'T HAVE ON MY FREAKING TIE!!!! LOL !!!
As you can see all of the other cool kids are wearing theirs....

Well I ran back too my bus on a set break to find my black tie in my bunk on the tour bus.
I finished out the set fully clothed and had a good time.  We started playing "Tightrope" and to our surprise Eryka Badu came out on the stage to put the cape on Janelle instead of our tour manager.  The crowd went BANNANAS!!!
We finished of the set and had a dope after-party.... Next Stop, Houston!

Happy Birthday at the LA Forum or I got too many hits...

Let me preface this Blog by just saying that these Blogs are not formal literary works.  Only loosely typed stories of my life in Music.  So there are probably millions of errors!  I barely have the time to type them with my two typing fingers of fury....
Pressing Forward.....

Fly out to LA  at 6 AM after playing the House of Blues and hanging out on Bourbon St in New Orleans.
Of course with out any sleep.....  We are flying to the LA Forum to play a show opening up for Prince!  On the flight there I look up out of a sleepy stupor to see none other Stevie Wonder on our flight!  And....... it was his Birthday on top of that!

We sound check and get some food.  I am stoked  to open up for Prince at the LA Forum!!!.  Showtime.  We are on this amazing stage molded in the shape of Prince's Guitar.  We kill.  It was much better than the Madison Square Garden Show.  Okay I'll get to the good Stuff…..

The Purple One himself came out and did an amazing show!  I was right in the front row in a VIP area that he set aside for us.  He played for over Three Hours!!!  He did like at LEAST 8-10 Encores!!!!   He was like "We can be here all night cause I GOT TO MANY HITS!!!!"   WHAT????  I  almost died!  But he's right…..  Then we thought the show was over so we went back to the dressing room and the bar for the after party.  About fifteen minutes later the I hear music coming from the stage.  We run back into the Arena and check it out…  Next song, enter none other than Stevie Wonder!!!!  He got up played his version of Happy Birthday to himself on the Harmonica and then hopped on the Keys and DESTROYED "Superstition".  Oh MY GOD, it was an epic night!   Prince did one more song and called us up on the stage to dance and wave to everyone……  WOW.

It's now two in the morning and after party is jamming…  Prince calls up Janelle and the horns and percussion and we jam for like two hours!  The band was killin!  I took a few solos.  It's pretty intimidating when Prince points at you to take a solo.  But in my head I was just like F*QU%#@* it what to I have to lose…. nothing.  So I played my little heart out.  It was AMAZING!!!!!

4:30 AM…. back to the hotel. Take a shower.  Get Dressed. No Sleep. Hop in a cab to LAX.  Catch a flight to see my Beautiful Wife...

Maybe I'll sleep sometime this year....

A Beluga View From Moscow or Tiger Woods can't putt.

Wow.  Who goes to Moscow for a weekend to play one show?  I did with Janelle Monae.  Crazy right?
Well anywho.... Hop on the Plane for a twelve hour flight.  It was cool but for some reason I could not sleep...  I had a whole row to myself and was able to lay down but still couldn't sleep because it was 3 in the afternoon my time.  Landed in Moscow and it is Snowing!  Cool right, compared to the 75 degree weather in ATL...  Order room service... the hotel is banging...  I order some seared tuna. The only thing I 've had to eat all day, and I eat about half of it.  The Phone rings.  "Hey we gotta sound check"  Ok. Cool.  No Sleep for 32 hours... ok. I lied. Maybe 15 minutes on the plane.
So what is this gig you ask?
It for some rich Russian dude who wants Janelle Monae, along with 3 other bands to play at his 47 Birthday party.  What???!!!  Insane.

Grabbed two Heinekens from the dressing room for the bus ride back to the Hotel.  Called the lovely wife.  Head hits the pillow.  Two Hours Solid.  Wake up shower and get ready for the gig.  It was fun.  We played all of our notes again. lol.  Hung out for about an hour backstage.  Beers Flowed, Wine Flowed,  hands shook....

We went back to the hotel.  Dropped off our bags.  And headed out to "eat".  Mind you I have only had half a Tuna Steak all day .  So I am STARVING!!!  We get to this little Ukrainian spot with authentic food.  I order what I thought would be something of sustenance.  I get my food it is about four little pork dumplings about the size of a quarter.  Enter Oleg.  Oleg is  a cool Russian Bloake who set us up with this gig.  Oleg orders Bottle #1 of this Russian vodka Beluga.  I probably had maybe 4 shots out of this bottle in let's say 15mins.  Oleg says hey man "I like your style, you must be Russian." Enter bottle of Beluga #2.  Another 4 shots. Another 15 mins.  Having a good time feeling good, feeling great.  Enter Beluga #3.  You get the idea.  Ummmm Enter Bottle #4 vs me and Oleg Only!!!.  Bottle Four Conquered. Exit to Hotel..... Enter room. Lights out.

 Wake up just before lobby call and hurriedly pack.  Hangover.  Slept on the flight all the way back only waking for meals and restroom breaks.  Land at JFK.  Four hour layover.  Hanging out in the Delta Skylounge, (cause thats what ballers do...) Free Drinks and snacks. POW!  When when landed called the wife and checked my Masters app to see that my favorite golfer Tiger Woods has made a charge and was in a four way tie for the lead!  Chillin in a nice comfy chair, Jack and Diet Coke in Hand, and Tiger on the flatscreen.  (By the way Gang, I am not a Lush! The drinks were free!)  Tiger is playing steady.  Life is good.  Five foot putt for the lead........  Miss...   F*#* he regroups and hits another killer shot on a Par 5 about 8 feet from the hole.  Miss....  Well you guys know the rest is history.
Life of a rockstar.... Word.  (Whatever.)

SXSW Festival and Erykah Badu

Hey Gang,

Sorry for the delay on this...  These events occured on 3-17-11.  I'm a little late and a little slow.

I was reluctant to post this because it would be tough to beat my previous post...  Well, you can't win em' all... Unless you're Charlie Sheen.

SO.......On my way on a Freakin' Private jet to Austin to play with Janelle Monae at the South by Southwest Festival... You can Check it out at www.sxsw.com. Man it's the way to fly seriously.... Free Beer and Wine, nice comfy seats, and roomy lavatory.  No TSA, No Checking bags, and it is fast!  You just show up take off and away you go.  Seriously I drove 30 mins to the airport, parked my car beside the plane and hopped in. I was in Austin Texas from my front door in 2 and 1/2 hours!  Got to Austin and chilled for awhile....  Austin was cool it seems to be a college town.  Well anywhoo, people were EVERYWHERE!  Sixth Street was insane!  I repeat. There were people everywhere!!! Hundreds and Hundreds of people coating the streets in a sea of Green.  (by the way this happened on St. Patty's Day).  Had a few drinks, checked out a band, and headed back for the show.
We played the show at  cool rock club called La Zona Rosa.  B.O.B and Wiz Khalifa performed before us.  Saw B.o.B in the hallway and he dapped the horns down and said the track that we did for him last month is gonna be a banger. Also,  I saw and got hang also with a couple of friends, (Patrick Sheldon, his wife  and James Ballerin).  The show was on a live feed apparently!!! We rocked it and had maybe an hour or sooo to get back to the private jet so we could get back to atlanta....   We packed up and got on the Bus Limo and who was waiting for us?  No other than Erykah Badu!!!  I was star struck man.  Like really!!!  She was sooo nice and sweet!  She took the time to personally shake everyone's hand and speak to them.  Her presence was soooo strong you could just feel so much good energy coming off of her.  She shook my hand, I looked in to her eyes, she Squeezed my arm, and said "I'm Erykah, it's a pleasure."  I said "I'm Marcus, nice to meet you."  It took every fiber of my being to keep from fainting!!!
After hanging for a bit, Janelle said "they got WhattaBurgers out here lets stop here before we get on the plane."  We went in ordered their delicious, delicious food and went back to the Limo Bus....  I was one of the last ones to get back.  I see standing in the door of the bus , an older homeless looking dude talking to the band!!!  This guy's name was Timothy....  Tim proceeded to tell us he could feel that we would be one of the best bands in the states....  he ended the conversation with, I can't make this up,..... wait for it......  "Man I tell ya'll what,  I'd wash this whole damn Bus for a cigarette!!!"  What!  The WHOLE BUS!!!! FOR A CIGARETTE? LOL!!! A cop appeared out of nowhere and was like alright Timothy that's enough.  We laughed for at least 2-3 minutes.  Caught our plane and flew into the night......

First Real Blog. Trouble in Toronto!!!

We played in Toronto for the Canadian Music Festival.  It was a really dope high energy show.  I must tell you I.... WE played a flawless show. I hit all my notes (lol) and my little dance moves too.  I'm #Winning...Until.....  We came out for bows.  I was soooo pumped I decided to throw my towel into the crowd for some weird reason.... In retrospect here's why...  I have been looking at some recent pics of me on the web and saw that I had been packing on let's say a few extra pounds from touring.  So I worked-out before the show and to help motivate me I took a pre-workout energy supplement from GNC.   So, I was really excited and cracked out (apparently) I decided to launch this sweaty towel in to the crowd.  Man! I threw it so so hard until I spun around and then, there was nothing, as in no floor under my feet man!!!!  I was falling from about six feet in front of about 1,000 or so people!  Ha! Now as I'm falling, (which seemed like an eternity) I say to myself "oh my god I'm actually falling!!!"  So the towel is in mid-flight to some lucky,lucky person and my Conn 8H Trombone made in 1941 is in my hand.  (Pretty hard to replace) So to sacrifice my body rather than my Trombone I throw my  legs and arms in the air to land on my back.  But Wait...  I forgot to tell you on the side of the stage where I was, were some stairs.  My Hip hit the stairs and luckily the only thing to break my fall was my trusty iPhone...  God bless the iPhone and its all it glory and splendor.  I got up and tried to play it off as cool as possible.  I didn't even get hurt because i fell on the corner of the stairs on my phone. My iPhone probably saved my life.... If only it could have saved my dignity... Ok you can stop laughing now...

Intro Blog

Hey Gang...
Although I hate typing, I figured I should start a blog and tell about my travels on the road.  If there are any questions or anything you would like to see contact me through my website. Thanks.