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

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

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

Hello, my name is Mario and I am a recovering Taxi-holic. I am no longer a part of the mighty LST and therefore I am taking a great risk in writing this blog without their permission. I only hope that they will grant an exiled panda this last request.

Today my son will be born. It is now 4:18pm in Bismarck, ND and Alison is nearly ready to complete the final round of this 15 hour contest. As I sit here waiting to see Nathan Natal Pesacreta for the first time (yes, I lost a bet to Nathan!) I can’t help but feel nostalgic.

Does anyone remember just how high Franco used to jump? Can anyone recall when Nathan donned his “Funky Pants”? Can anyone forget the time I had long beautiful hair, like an overweight Fabio?

Franco: I can’t believe its not butter!

Mario-Fabio: That’s because it is butter!

I will miss the vikings of Quilcene: Bjorn and Mike. Everyone misses Sally, I will never forget her and we all loved her very much!!

Mr. Wilson, I hope you can build me a mic holder for my trumpet again, but this time in five minutes instead of ten. Also, if you have not picked up a copy of the “Zombie Survival Guide” yet, you may be in for a rude surprise.

To the Chards (excluding Andrew of course): Thank you for your hospitality, ribs, wine, camera lenses, and for one hell of a bass playing son.

Thanks to the band for putting up with my mood swings, perfectionism, and hygene.

Also to everyone else in Quilcene, and Touchet, and Yakima, and countless other people that fed and housed the plague of locusts that is LST.

LST is a magical group that will always have the ability to touch peoples hearts and… yes even their ears through unclassifiable, ever changing music.

This is the last blog of the panda.

Goodbye.

Our new album is so close to being done.  And we have a name for it: Mr. Brown.  We’re calling it that partly to honor our venerable and magical sound man, Tom.  Right now Tom is probably in his dark cave surrounded by knobs, buttons and little flashing green lights, mixing the album.  He has to wait for the barometer to drop below 970 before he can do this.  Low atmospheric pressure is better for his ears.

~

Mario and Alison are moving to North Dakota to have their baby boy.  Ally’s family is in North Dakota and they wanted to be close to them.  They will be missed by us big time.  This means that Mario won’t be performing with LST for awhile.  Mario is not replaceable, but in order to make up for his absence Nathan is learning to play the harmonica, Sam is buying more drums and Franco is trying not to be so skinny.

~

Andrew Chard played his last official LST show on bass last September.  Then he subbed for Milo Mullins, his successor, at a show on October 3rd.  He was an excellent substitute bass player - our best ever in fact.  He moved on for a variety of reasons, one of which was to write a book.  Chard played bass with us from 2007 through most of 2009. 

~

Mario is still featured on the new album, as is Andrew Chard.  We will still be performing several of Mario’s songs at live shows.  He gave us his blessing to do this.  The songs will sound a bit different of course, but good songs are good songs and Nathan and I have really been enjoying singing them in rehearsals.

This has been a crazy summer for LST. Crazy good! The band has managed to write at least a handful of new tunes and our live shows have been better than ever. Enough bragging, let me catch you up on some LST gossip.

Nathan Geyer- He is done with school and ready for…. more school! This time he’ll be the teacher and you kids better watch out! He will turn you into a lean mean music machine!

Sam Stockard- Sam is heading off to Africa for vacation. Who the heck goes to Africa? If he gets a limb ripped off by a wild hippo he is out of the band!! Or at least his pay will be cut by 1/4 to make up for the lack of an arm or leg.

Franco Bertucci- His house is finished and it is beautiful! He has ducks, and a kitten and he is very happy. You can tell at our shows because he now jumps so high that he hurts himself.

Andrew Chard- Andrew has gorgeous hazel eyes and is ready to commit full time… to the band!! He is currently writing the great American novel. I think it is about Nazis and I hope it is about zombies. He says if it doesn’t sell he’ll turn it into a romance novel. His parents are the best and they have let us stay at their lovely house for too many nights and provided countless pounds of delicious barbecue.

Mario Pesacreta- Thats me!! What am I up to….?????.a.dojfopihja;sl;lnc ummm……… I am currently awaiting the Zombie Apocalypse. My friend Scott Wilson has assured me that Quilcene is the place to be when this inevitably happens. I am counting on our friend Bjorn (he is a living Norse god) to protect us and provide us with oysters to eat until the infection has passed.

See you soon everyone,

Mario

On behalf of the band I would like to give a huge thanks to Chard’s parents, for putting us up for three nights, feeding us amazing meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner!) and letting me make some milkshakes involving half and half and a pint of schnapps.  During these practice sessions we managed to write four new songs, work up two new covers and re-work “Heart in The Buff” a too little heard Franco gem. We’ve decided to record a new album in the fall of ‘09, and offer free downloads of some bootleg recordings from 08. Also, watch out this summer when we cut Franco’s leash and get him a wireless system for his guitar. You might even see Andrew (aka “Chard” aka “big brother”) playing on a sweet full size (3/4 to be exact) upright bass on a few taxi favorites.

Thanks again to  Mike and Sue Chard for the wine, the ribs and for a little baby boy named Andy Chard!