$3,000 Guitar Pedals, Dancing Polar Bears and The Ricky Fitts Return to Phoenix

OOOOOOOHHHHHH MAN has a lot gone on since I last wrote. Geez, played 3 shows in L.A. one of which we sold out at Whiskey A Go Go, filmed a music video, started playing more churches and meeting new musicians, watched Breaking Bad for the second time (still amazing), and a country music video that I got to be a part of was released! So much to talk about so we’ll start with whats on my mind first…

CALIFORNIA

The two weeks I spent back and forth playing shows and working with The Ricky Fitts over there was some of the most fun I’ve had since I went to Harry Potter World a couple years ago in Florida.

Its a long drive but doing it with your bandmates is the best feeling ever, playing shows in different states where strangers that will come out to see your band is one of the most humbling situations and it gets me so freaking hyped just thinking about it.

Hotel Cafe show was awesome. Midnight slot on a weekend finished around 1am and made it home by about 2 after loading up. I barely made it to my air mattress before I completely passed out on Elliot’s floor. Alec and I drove back the next morning (Saturday) to play our Sunday church services.

After a couple chill days with my dog I drove back to L.A. halfway through the week. Just before we left the band got a call that the show was going to be sold out, so that made the 6 hour trek not so hard. We walked in to Oingo Boingo Dance Party sound checking at Whiskey A Go Go. The drummer was super nice, had an awesome mohawk. And the guitarist… Good Lord gearheads prepare yourself… the man had a Klon. Now to some of you non guitarists or non gearheads that means nothing but, to y’all tone wizards on the quest for the mightiest of the sonic glory that is found in guitar pedals, it was the Silver Non-Horse. In. The. Flesh. I legit never thought I would see one of these things, they're insanely rare.

There are only 8,000 Klon Centaur Overdrive pedals were made between 1994-2000. They came in Gold and Silver with or without a centaur on the outer casing, some call it hype others claim its totally legit but these things go for anywhere up to $1500-3500.

To put that in perspective the HIGH END overdrive pedals on the market go from about $150-400 and that $400 is really pushing it.

I was so shocked that I saw it on this guys board that I probably did a quadruple take. He definitely noticed. “Nice Klon man.” was all i could whisper without melting on the spot. He just smiled and nodded… He knew.

We get to the end of our set, everything was vibing, people were dancing. The place was packed and the band and I were having the time of our lives. We crashed out of our last song “Got Me (Rollin)”, and started to hear the crowd say our name for an encore. We were unplugging and getting ready to walk off stage but just in time the emcee called us back on for one more. That was definitely the highlight of my year so far.

About a month and a half ago I got to play guitar in a music video for my buddy Jacob Morris. Now if you’re anything like me… country is just all sorts of wrong (except Johnny Cash, he’s the man). BUT GUYS I SWEAR JACOB MORRIS IS FANTASTIC AND WILL CHANGE YOUR MIND OR AT LEAST BE THE ONLY COUNTRY ARTIST YOU LISTEN TO. I’ve been fortunate enough to be friends with him for about 3 years now and this guy just keeps on getting better and better. His new single “Get Up” will straight up rock your socks off. Definitely check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LadXskip9FE

The new Paramore record. Thank ya Jesus. Its fantastic, the evolution of their band is freaking amazing and its so cool to see a band that I’ve grown up on stay relevant near the end of my teenage years. It really got me thinking about just how dope female musicians are. For a good couple days I really got into female-fronted bands or some bands with just some rad ladies killing it. Guitar can be a very male-dominated instrument so I get so hype seeing some gal pick it up and shred. Because I haven’t written anything or made playlists in a while I’ll put an extra one down at the bottom of this of some of my favorite bands featuring some BA ladies.

So as some of you know one of my favorite bands ever is Neutral Milk Hotel. Crazy lo-fi psychedelic folk music, its awesome. I got a call a week ago from a good buddy of mine named Casey Van Shaar. I collab-ed on a song with him back in my senior year of high school called “Constellations”.

He knows how much I love Neutral Milk Hotel so he told me he had a couple free tickets to see Jullian Koster. He’s the dude that played all of the weird Romanian circus instruments on the record, like the singing saw, and banjo played with a violin bow. The guy was basically Jeff Mangum’s way of expressing the crazy sounds he came up with in his head. I flipped out. Neutral Milk Hotel did probably their last tour ever in 2014-2015 and I totally missed it cause I wasn’t 18 yet and wouldn’t be allowed into the show. So the chance to see one of the iconic members was surreal.

The show in of itself was incredible and unlike anything I’ve been to before. It was 90 minutes and only 4 songs were played. It was practically a one man play and it really pushed so many artistic boundaries. He sang into a paper towel roll, played the singing saw, tap danced with a polar bear. It really inspired the my thought process of: if you want to dress up like a polar bear and lip-synch along to french opera nothing is stopping you. Sure it might be weird but art isn’t meant to be trapped in a box thats what makes it so cool and constantly innovative. I was really impressed by it all so go check out The Music Tapes and their EP The Orbiting Human Circus. I will say, its definitely not as good as it is live, but its worth a listen.

Last thing… THE RICKY FITTS ARE BACK IN TOWN. We’re playing Crescent Ballroom June 11th (Sunday) with Rival Coast. Its going to be killer. Tickets are $12 just message me and I’ll hook you up. I’m so excited for this one, I’ve missed playing Phoenix and seeing all of my friend’s faces in the crowd. The band has really grown and learned a lot over these last couple months. We’ve been starting to work on new tunes and ways to make our live show more of an experience. And its all going down for the first time on the 11th. Don’t miss out. Our song just got put on one of the Ultimate Indie playlists on Spotify with 29,000+ followers so we're so thankful for that.

Check out the tunes here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4uQocysPlGpCfhrOijfhhg

Keep your eyes peeled for a music video that’ll be coming out soon… and until then, keep jamming the record.

Rad Ladies Playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/user/fletchermilloy/playlist/19y3bsQIKAkw5xhfxX4z8C

Rebel Girl - Bikini Kill

Hanging on the Telephone - Blondie

Oh Love - MisterWives

Caught in the Middle - Paramore

Gotta Have You - The Weepies

Heartstrings - Vintage Wednesday

Black Sheep - Metric

Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine

Kool Thing - Sonic Youth

Debaser - Pixies

Week 4 Playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/user/fletchermilloy/playlist/6vi3Ihx9MXeSnl2Pb8z8Rj

Fill in the Blank - Car Seat Headrest

Red Lights - Rival Coast

Gliding the Lily - HUNNY

Hold On To Me - Mondo Cosmo

Little Charmer - The Technicolors

Pictures of You - The Cure

All I Wanna Do -Splashh

Doing It for the Money - Foster the People

Dark Days - Local Natives

Money for Nothing - Dire Straits