DAN P’s Top 5 of 2011

#1- Album of the year: “I bleed rock n roll” by Kepi ghoulie. Such great, ear blistering rock n roll from one of my all time favorites, Kepi! I had the honor of going into the studio and shredding leads on the title track. As I was tracking, Kepi was jumping around the studio like a crazed grasshopper, screaming and cheering me on.. Easily one of my favorite moments of 2011!

#2- Dog of the year: Louise Moon. Chihuahua/pug mix? Don’t know. My wife and I adopted a dog this October from the Santa Cruz county animal shelter. She’s made me laugh out loud at least twice every day the past two months. Am I a bad person for putting clothes on my dog? I’m sorry. I can’t help it. I’ve become that person.

#3- Favorite show of 2011 that has already happened: mu330 at slims with slapstick and the chinkees. So fun. So surreal.
Was that Matt Skiba skanking on stage?

#4-Favorite show of 2011 that hasn’t happened yet: new years eve at the firebird in St Louis with mu330, all original Press era lineup! We haven’t played together with this lineup since 1994. That’s 17 years! I’ve been in STL practicing for the past couple days, and it’s been silly fun relearning our entire first album. Poor Rob Bell. Our early horn arrangements were ridiculous. No stopping, just playing constantly through a four minute song. Did we really arrange a song to have four verses!?!

#5- Favorite on-stage star struck moment: During a Kepi ghoulie set at the crepe place in Santa Cruz, I was playing guitar with the Kepi electric band, and Kepi invited Josh Caterer from the smoking popes to come up and shred leads. I’m a huge dork of a smoking popes fan. Total dream come true.