We have made a fun discovery this year: we really enjoy performing completely unplugged and semi-acoustic concerts. We have noticed that vocal nuances come out clearer, lyrics are a bit easier to catch, James’ upright bass is very pretty and Sam has almost as much fun playing his congas as he does his 100 piece drum set (they are also much easier to pack.) Audience members have also told us that they enjoy hearing our songs with the acoustic treatment.

Don’t worry, we are not going to give up rocking. I don’t think LST unplugged is better than LST amplified – but it is very good…and quieter. Quiet enough to play in your living room. Also, it is good for Sam’s wimpy hands.

Many artists give house concerts and it’s something we’ve never done. But we would like to try it. Do you have a house? Do you want to sell tickets to an LST performance in your living room? It doesn’t get much more intimate than that. (Concert in a bathroom?) Please give us a call if you are interested. Our booking contact info is below.

Best,

Papa Taxi
(360)765-0834
locuststreettaxi@gmail.com

Thank you Port Townsend, Normandy Park, Sequim, Burien, Chelan, Woodburn, OR and all you wonderful places that have hosted LST this summer. And congratulations to all you couples whose weddings we have been honored to help celebrate.

We’re always encouraged and flattered to be received with such warmth everywhere we go – so we intend to keep going.

Next stop:

The Treehouse Cafe – Bainbridge Island, WA
Saturday, August 21, 8-11pm

Best,

Franco

We were on the radio in Spokane on Sunday. If you missed the hour-long show, you can listen to the whole thing and watch a video of “Where do We Stand” here:
LST on KCDA

We played four songs live in the studio which turned out very well, I thought. We were having fun that night. We had even more fun driving straight to the west side from 2am to 9am afterwards. Enjoy. Thanks again to Matt Loi for having us.

-Franco

We will be on the radio for an hour (minus commercials) in Spokane on Sunday, August 1 at 10pm. The Local Lounge show will feature us performing four songs live in the studio, talking about LST, playing a few cuts from our new album, “Mr. Brown” and saying the name of the radio station a whole bunch of times.

I’d like to thank Matt Loi, the producer of the show, who is a lot of fun to work with and a great mixing engineer. I think you will enjoy hearing LST on the radio. We are pretty charming, after all.

If you live in the Spokane/Post Falls/Coeur D’Alene area you can tune in to 103.1 KCDA on Sunday, August 1 at 10pm. If you don’t live in the Spokane area you can listen online here:

http://www.1031kcda.com/pages/LocalLoungeHome.html

You can also listen to the live broadcast on your iPhone, Blackberry, or Droid with the iheartradio app:

http://www.1031kcda.com/cc-common/radio_app/

- Papa Taxi

My Day Will Come (MP3)

This song dates back to 2002. This revamped version was recorded live in Quilcene, WA in 2007 by Tom Brown. I think that was the last year we performed it. Enjoy.

Bass: Andrew Chard
Drums: Sasha Landis

In 2006 we released an album called, “We Swear We Are Making This Up.” The CD was comprised entirely of live recordings of improv songs.

Here is a free mp3 download of my favorite song from that album:

Bohemian Butts

In case you are getting worried, the next song we post from the Taxi Trunk will be a real song, not an improv song.

We only had room to print basic notes for every song inside the cover of our new CD, so I thought I would provide you with some more detailed liner notes here. These are according to my memory only, but I do have a mind like a steel vise so they should be fairly accurate. Still, I apologize in advance to my bandmates if I get anything wrong.

Inside the Wine
Track 1, written by Mario Pesacreta
listen here

When Mario first sang this song to us it sounded like it would end up being a jazz waltz, similar to “I Met Her on the Farm.” (Remember that one?) He came up with it while riding in the car at night. We first tried it out in his music store in Centralia, WA and when I began strumming, Ally, from behind the counter, said it sounded like Flamenco.

That was by accident. I then tried to make it sound Flamenco on purpose, even though I don’t know how to play real Flamenco. When Sam came in on drums there was no doubt that we were not playing Flamenco, but had invented yet another pseudo-style of rock. (Incidentally, it sometimes takes awhile to begin this song at live shows because we have to wait for Sammy to line up all his mallets and sticks in just the right way so that he can rapidly switch from clapping his hands to playing cymbal swells to regular rocking.)

The song exploded. We played it a bunch of times that night and Mario blew his chops having too much fun with his horn. We spent a lot of rehearsal time perfecting the hand-clapping intro and outro. It turned out to be a good addition to our live show. Sometimes people start clapping along, but they give up after awhile. It was also the hardest part to get right on the recording. I believe Sam ended up overdubbing all the clapping parts himself. His hands do sound the best after all.

We placed this song first on the album because of the unique intro and the great build-up. Tom had misgivings about putting it first because he thought it might scare people – but of course, we did it anyway.

When it came time to perform this song at an actual winery we realized we had better temporarily change the words from “happiness is not inside the wine” to “life is always better with some wine.”

- Franco

You can now listen to all 13 songs from Mr. Brown. Isn’t that wonderful?

Streaming Mr. Brown page

The album still costs $15 with free shipping and you still get a free download of thirteen live tracks with every order. Also, as requested by many people, our Panda T-shirts are back. We will send you a t-shirt and a CD for $25 with free shipping. Click here to go to the “Stuff” for sale page.

In other news, I recently received word that our newest member, James Porter (bass and harmony vocals,) is still alive and mostly well in Columbia after some adventures on the Amazon. He is the second member of our rhythm section to abandon us for several weeks to go gallavanting around in exotic and dangerous places. Last October Sam went to Africa and chased baboons. I think it’s time Nathan and I took a trip. Maybe we should go to Forks.

- Franco

We played a wedding reception in Yakima, WA for Sabrina and Raymond a couple of weeks ago, and boy was it a good one.  Homebrew was served, everyone danced and celebrated with gusto and the groom’s cake was a model of The Simpsons’ house.  We did an improv song based on Raymond’s suggestion: 

The Simpsons

Hope you enjoy listening to Nathan bend over backwards to make rhymes.  Thanks to Sabrina and Raymond and their families for the great party.

-Franco

P.S.  I don’t think we did an improv song all last year.  For those who haven’t seen us do this shtick, we make up a song on the spot: lyrics, music, everything; based on a suggestion from the audience.  We’ve just recently worked up the courage, or the foolhardiness, to attempt this dangerous feat in front of live audiences again.

A look behind the scenes, and behind the back, of “Mr. Brown.”
Photos thanks to Alison Pesacreta, who is a now a new mother.
- Franco