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Friday night geekfest with Selsun Blue

Now that Battlestar Galactica has run its course, what's a geek to do this Friday night? See the Selsun Blue show at RB Winnings this Friday night, of course. When my husband first saw the Selsuns, he loved them so much that he swore they'd play at his wedding. Fast forward five years and my husband was the Selsuns' drummer and sure enough, I was walking down the aisle arm and arm with my dad, strolling along behind Tuba Man, Mr. Fish and Live Bob as they played Sweet Roll for the wedding march.

Selsun Blue (also known as the Selsuns) is an old school Albuquerque band with a core lineup of Live Bob playing a wicked dobro and guitar; Tuba Man (aka Mark Weaver) playing tuba, trombone and stomping board; Mr. Fish (aka Darrell Sparks) playing banjo, bass and guitar; and Bee playing guitar, theramin, keyboards and found sounds.

Collectively, these band members have serious musical roots and shoots in the Albuquerque music scene, with a cred list that would be too long to post here. [note -- see six degrees dept for a bite]

Photo of Live Bob (pic by Bee)
Sounds of the Selsuns are old delta blues-inspired with original compositions such as, "When Good Hats Go Bad", "Hydrogen", "Cowboys at Sea" and my all-time favorite "Hannibal", an instrumental story of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps.

Hannibal starts off slowly, melodically plodding along, then slowly builds up to a wicked crescendo that ends with Tuba Man standing on his chair, a microphone dropped straight down his tuba, playing the freakiest screeching, wailing and howling electrified tuba solo riff with shades of Jimmy Hendrix as Hannibal's elephants storm the pass.

If you get to see a performance of Hannibal, consider yourself lucky -- the band is often reluctant to include Hannibal in their set list because it tends to leave audiences slack-jawed and glassy eyed from the bizarre tuba solo that epitomizes high strange.

Six-degrees / give them some love department:
1. For any fans of the now-defunct alt.country Albuquerque band, Pawn Drive -- two Selsuns members (Bee and Mr. Fish) are former front men / singers / songwriters / guitar players for Pawn Drive. This Friday's Selsun show will likely include some "Selsun-fied" Pawn Drive tunes for those of you loved that band as much as I did.

2. Former Selsuns drummer, Mr. Pastor (aka Jimmy Pontzer) was the Pawn Drive's bass player and is currently playing drums for Edith Grove.

3. Adding another six degrees for some of Mr. Fish's other musical dabblings with Rivet Gang and Trilobite.

4. Tuba Man has a cred list a mile long...to name a few, he runs Plutonium Records, a small label for creative new music and improvisational jazz; he's composed some incredible music and performed in several interesting musical efforts including Circus Luminous (as part of Bing), Out of Context, the renowned Messier Object Three and too many others to mention.

5. Live Bob's amps -- got to see them to believe them.

Hope to see you at the show!

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Comment by chantal on June 26, 2008 at 9:57pm: Hey nice! Wanna provide some links and/or locations for our newbies and visitors?

Comment by Carrie on June 27, 2008 at 7:38am: Woops for omitting the essentials (like how to get there - oy) and thanks for the love, Chantal -- I've added links to the original post for the RB Winnings venue (all about, how to get there etc.) as well as Bee's event notice in the Events section of DCF.

Also added some more items to the "Six Degrees Dept." Feel free to add your own!

Comment by bee on June 27, 2008 at 8:57am: 6 degrees - Mr. Fish also plays with his brother's band, the Handsome Family.

Comment by Ryan Martin Stark on June 27, 2008 at 11:45am: Yah, damn shame there's no new Galactica 'til next year...

Comment by Carrie on June 27, 2008 at 11:52am: totally blows, although I suspect Hera is the fifth cylon :)

Comment by Jessie on June 27, 2008 at 2:09pm: Wait, I thought this was supposed to be the last season? (This is coming from someone who doesn't have cable & watches BSG on DVD...)

Comment by Carrie on June 27, 2008 at 4:25pm: It is the last season, but they broke it into two parts...check out the sci fi channel website for more info. You can also watch this season's episodes from the Sci Fi Rewind link.

Comment by Edith Grove on June 27, 2008 at 5:03pm: It's also running on Hulu.com - though the episodes expire after awhile. We just had the mid-season cliffhanger and now we have to wait until 2009 for the final 10 episodes.

Comment by Carrie on June 27, 2008 at 5:35pm: ...so this is turning into a BSG thread :) Now we know who our fellow sci fi geeks are...

Comment by SweetCaroline on June 28, 2008 at 10:37am: I LOVE the Selsuns - I've followed them since I first saw them performing in a vacant lot in Nob Hill with Bee on vocalss.