Wednesday, December 30, 2009

New Year's Eve at the Stronghold : New Year's Day at Pappy & Harriet's

It's been a wonderful year. It's been a helluva decade.

We gonna finish it out at the Stronghold New Year's Eve.

1625 Abbot Kinney Blvd. Venice, CA 90291

10pm: Peter Goetz

11pm: Honey Honey (Ironworks Records)

Midnight Special: Paul Chesne & The Love Handles

1am: The Legendary Willie Chambers of the Chambers Brothers

40 bucks -- But before you get all excited. Free drinks! And you can bring whatever you like too. $40 ain't no thang really. Especially on NYE! That's like 4 or 5 drinks at a bar. Seriously. And great music. Sitting in with us on bass will be the newest addition to Ryan Adams' band. That's pretty pimptacular.

Then we're getting in the van the next day and headed up to start the new year/decade off at my favorite place in the world. Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, It's out there in the desert near Joshua Tree. We start there at 7pm and go all night.

Hope to see you. And either way may you have the happiest of new years!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Crazy Girls Wednesday At 10pm. MSG Me For $5 Discount List!

Crazy Girls. 1433 N. La Brea Ave.

It's the one with the sign that says "Girls! Girls! Girls!"

Wednesday December 23rd. 10pm

The night before the night before Christmas.

Creatures will be stirring.

No one has to work on Thursday so this is what we in the business like to call a party.

MSG me for $5 discount list otherwise it's 10 bucks.


Here's a video of us playing live at the Redwood Bar & Grill on 12/5.


Friday, December 18, 2009

Stronghold In Venice On Saturday

Saturday the 19th at midnight the Stronghold in Venice.

1625 Abbot Kinney. 90291. It's a kinda byob speakeasy musician's lodge. I've been going down there like 3-4 times a week and playing until late. Like sunrise even. With like 50 people still there.

Our buddy Jonny Kaplan is gonna play earlier.

It's $10, but you don't have to buy drinks. They do have some drinks for sale. Keep your bottles or whatever else on the DL a little bit.

Ask me for guest list if you're broke. I don't want anyone not there because of $. I'll do a $5 and a free list. Don't be shy. But realize that the place only holds about 100 people. It is a cozy awesome room.

It is the best new venue in LA. I have not seen a parade of talent come through a place like this ever in the last 10 years.

We will be having some special guests dropping in. Our good friend Willie Chambers of the Chambers Brothers. Here he is hanging out on the Mike Douglas show with John & Yoko getting his autograph!



There's been lots of super-famous celebs and musicians hanging out down there. Who knows! If we're not good enough for you.

Pics from Willie Chambers last week at the Stronghold.

Check out our friends Leslie & The Badgers: Song of the day on KCRW on Wed.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Leslie & The Badgers & Other Friends On KCRW

I'm sexist.

If I hear a really good/great female songwriter, I'll like it more than I'll like a male of the same caliber.

One of my favorites, happens to be my friend Leslie Stevens of Leslie & The Badgers. We've played a bunch of shows with them.

I've actually been playing shows with her since she was in Ze Auto Parts. A really loud punk band that used to play at the Kibitz Room almost as much as me.

Ze Auto Parts at the Kibitz Room on January 6, 2004.

Now Leslie does quieter music. Her latest album is getting all kinds of critical acclaim. They are Morning Becomes Eclectic's song of the day and you can download it free here:
http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/tu/tu091216leslie_and_the_badge

A couple months ago some other good friends of mine, Rosey and Ireesh of Lal Meri, were featured on the same program, Morning Becomes Eclectic. Last week Rosey and I jammed until dawn with Willie Chambers and a whole host of other superstars.

Check their performance on MBE out here:
http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/mb090722lal_meri

And finally the oldest friend of mine I will now be mentioning in the female singer/songwriter kicking ass realm is Juliette Commagere. (Don't forget, I've already written about Holland Greco, The Webb Sisters and The Dahl Sisters). I've known Juliette and her man Joachim Cooder since they were in a band called Speakeasy in high school. I saw them play at Fais Do Do in 1992! The bass player at that point was Bradford Craig who ended up being my bass player about 12 years later for a spell. Since Speakeasy which featured Joachim's dad Ry Cooder on guitar, Juliette & Joachim started Vagenius.

Here they are performing at Spaceland on February 3rd, 2004.

And then due to some legal conflict they changed their name to Hello Stranger. Now she's gone solo and finally been embraced by Morning Becomes Enigmatic. Check their performance on MBE out here:
http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/mb081218juliette_commagere

Well now you've got the tip of the iceberg's worth of great chick singers to enjoy recommended by your friendly neighborhood sexist.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

eden ahbez : The First Hippie



I have just stumbled on an amazing fact. eden ahbez, the man who wrote "Nature Boy" a #1 hit for 8 weeks straight for Nat "King" Cole, was also a raw food hippie. This was in 1947!
He is the prototypical hippie. A sort of Jesus figure that lived for a time under the "L" in the Hollywood sign.
Check out this article:
http://shadowboxstudio.com/ahbefiles/1977.htm

He died in 1995 after being hit by a car. His life though is an extraordinary story.

Made my day.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Offshore Bank Accounts (Live) -- 12/5 at the Redwood Bar & Grill In Downtown LA



Thanks to Levi Nunez of Old Californio for filming and sending this along.

Next show is 12/19 at the Stronghold in Venice.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

3 Hecklers in 2 Songs Last Night.

I know I invite chaos and challenge the audience from time to time, but come on.

Heckler 1: I told that Jonas Brother looking mutherfucker if I had his $ I'd be heckling me too.

Heckler 2: is actually an actual Venice bum. After I finished "You Owe Me," he said, "That was good now, let's hear something original." I said "Actually that was original." I guess he was joking? You Owe Me. He says & thinks he's in U2. I'm not kidding. This wasn't our 1st run-in. Last week when he interrupted me mid-song to tell me that he is in fact in U2, I immediately stopped the song I was playing, took off my guitar and handed it to him. He put it on and stood there for a minute. Then took it off and never played a note. Oh Venice Beach. I love thee so.

Heckler 3 comes on stage and sings outta tune like a bum just like heckler 2. Yeah did I mention heckler 2 actually had the audacity to get on stage and start singing. It was bad. Afterwards heckler 3 says my songs are too good for my voice. He thinks that he should be singing my songs because "Bob couldn't sing either." Which one are you Sonny or Cher mutherfucker?

Anyways, peace and love throughout the galaxy.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Friday @ Redwood Bar & Grill in Downtown LA : Saturday In Bakersfield : 7 Deadly Sins‏

Friday we play at the Redwood Bar & Grill, 316 W. Second St. LA, CA 90012

We go on at 11pm. Old Californio goes on at 9:30. They are real good.

The place is an old pirate bar (!) downtown and it has good food. Free!


Saturday we open up for Trainwreck featuring KG of Tenacious D at Fishlips in Bakersfield.

The other band on the bill is called Band Of Bigfoot and they do songs like "Yeti for love. Oh baby I'm yeti for love?!"

$10. We go on at 9 on Saturday.


We've gots some other great shows coming up before the end of the year and beyond.

Farmer's Market

Strip club

Kibitz Room 10 year anniversary of the Chesne Band's existence & Dutch's birthday!!!

Speakeasies, secret parties, dive bars.

I think we will also be concomitantly committing all of the 7 deadly sins.

Ya know, the usual.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Mobil Station Party HQ In Pacific Palisades

When I was a teenager growing up, there wasn't no Twitter. No Facebook Events. No Myspace bulletins. No Evite. No Friendster. No Hotmail. Not even Motorola Startac cell phones!

But there was a Mobil Gas station in Pacific Palisades where all the kids would congregate on Friday and Saturday nights looking for the hot parties to attend. Bel-Air Patrol would congregate there too, but if you got there at the right time you would be in.

I remember one time we went down there and heard about some party up Bienveneda Canyon. We were in 9th grade. (That would make it circa 1991.) And this was some senior at Palisades High School's house whose parents were clearly out of town. It was just a friend, my step-brother & I.

When we arrived we're like "Whoa this is intimidatingly out of our league of coolness." We each weighed about 100 pounds and were private school nerds surrounded by the best Jim Morrison's, Matthew McConaughey's, Alicia Silverstone's and Lindsay Lohan's Pali had to offer.

A tank of nitrous was the De facto centerpiece & the aroma of schwag weed was wafting. Led Zeppelin poured out over the canyon from the living room speakers which were pointed toward the terrace where 150 or so kids were debauching. It was one of those houses built right in to the side of a hill with a large pool patio area basically on stilts. We walked over to the edge to check out the chicks and gauge the situation. Really just trying not to get our asses kicked.

After sussing it out my friend decides to take his first hit of Nitrous Oxide. Apparently, he got a good one and almost fell directly in to the empty pool. The older kids finally noticed us and started yelling at him to get away. My step-brother & I guided him over to the edge of the terrace high over the slope below overlooking the relaxing million dollar city and canyon view. Taking his first post-nitrous high deep breath, he leans against the railing.

Next thing you know he falls like 15-20 feet down. The railing was broken & just barely balancing together. Putting any weight on it at all made it fall & sure enough he went with it.

The music stopped. Like a scene from a movie. Everyone was freaking out. Yelling and running to his aid.

It ended up that he landed on some sort of scrub brush that kind of placed him, without so much as a scrape, gently on the side of the hill about 6 inches to the right of one of those mountainside sprinkler heads that juts 4 feet out of the ground and would certainly have impaled him.

100 people gathered around to try and help him back up. He had long blond surfer dude hair. Once they pull his scraggly ass back on the terrace, they realize he's not the owner of the house's girlfriend as was feared. The Zeppelin roars back up immediately and everyone walks away.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving & O'Brien's On Saturday

I think the title about says it all.

Happy Thanksgiving & O'Brien's Saturday.

Oh yeah, Topanga stalwarts Old Bull are opening up for us at O'Brien's.

What else do you want? All of our music for free or something?

A link to a funny video? Or two?

What you already saw those.

Well yippity doo dads and Happy Thanksgiving alright.

Wait, I already said that.

Stupid proofreading.

Stupid LA.

Toodlios,

PChesterfields

Monday, November 23, 2009

Pappy & Harriet's, Joshua Tree & Bobby Furst's Studio

Last weekend we went out to play a show at our favorite place on the planet: Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace. By the end of the show everyone there either offered us a record deal, a place to stay, drugs, sex, to hire us for their corporate Christmas parties or all of the above. That's what a successful rock n' roll show is all about.

To complete our traditional loop, we head over to the Country Kitchen in Joshua Tree on Sunday morning for the best breakfast around.

Before heading home, we go have a beer and get our minds blown with the one of a kind genius artist Bobby Furst at his studio which is really an installation art work in and of itself with a million different pieces obsessively organized in to some kind of an eminent order. Every inch of that place makes sense. It is overwhelming in the best possible way.

Here are some pics from the events...

Pappy & Harriet's, Country Kitchen & Bobby Furst's Studio


We'll be back there on New Year's Day which is a Friday. Come party with us!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Rock n' Roll At A Strip Club

Ya ever heard of a little group called the Beatles? Well they played cover tunes at strip clubs in Hamburg, Germany for a couple years. A few months ago the PC Band got the opportunity of a life time. To play Crazy Girls on La Brea & Sunset. Not quite the Beatles in Hamburg, but our own little twist on it. We actually did it 3 times in one month. Our good friend just happens to be the best live photographer around. He documented the shenanigans...
Crazy Girls

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Pappy & Harriet's This Weekend

This Saturday (14th), we are going to Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace near Joshua Tree.

Resuscitate in otherworldly psychedelic movie studio Western town with bikers, Marines, hippies, hipsters, artists, freaks, normals and Paul Chesne & The Love Handles.

It's free. They have great food and dranks. Accomodations at the Pioneertown Motel are just stumbling distance from the bar/restaurant/venue. Hope to see ya out there.

We are starting a benign and malevolent cult. Everyone is more than welcome. This is our 4th meeting.

Here are some pictures from the 1st meeting with Leslie & The Badgers.
Pappy & Harriet's With Leslie & The Badgers

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Fri in San Diego : Sat in Bakersfield : Next week Pappy & Harriet's!‏

Getting in the van & heading out for some road dogging this weekend.

11/6/09: Island Sports & Spirits: Coronado, CA

9pm-close, Free

11/7/09: Fishlips: Bakersfield, CA

9pm-close, $5 (We're headlining, but there's a special surprise opener)

And Next weekend we are headed out to Pappy & Harriet's by Joshua Tree. We are starting a benign & malevolent hippie cult out there. Have you never heard of such a thing. I assure you it's wonderful. Come join. Everyone is welcome!

11/14/09: Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace: Pioneertown, CA


11/28/09: O'Brien's Pub



Don't forget to get our new EP for free here.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Robert Plant & Jackshit

A few weeks ago I was at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. It was a crazy day. One of the best of my life. 5 albums worth of pics are here.

I played a song with my buddies Elvis Perkins In Dearland.

But this is not why I write today. I write today because bumming around among the Mt. Rushmore of bluegrass and billionaires and millionaires and superstars backstage, I'm walking and look over to see Robert Plant. He's talking with Elvis Costello's drummer Pete Thomas. And I get all nervous. Cuz like how do I say hello and still be cool. I don't want anything from them. Just to acknowledge they're a couple of inspiring and badass musicians. I walk kinda over by them. And then...
chicken out.

But as I'm chickening out, I overhear them talking. Pete is talking about and explaining his side project band Jackshit. It's him and Elvis Costello's bass player, Davey Farragher, and Jackson Browne's guitar player Val McCallum. They do 3 part harmonies all night long with the best country soul covers & redneck schtick in between. Pure genius.

So, I stop in my tracks. And walk right up to them. I'm like "Are you guys talking about Jackshit?! They're my favorite band." And Pete says to Robert, "See this guy knows what he's talking about." And I say to Plant, "Oh you've done a great thing or two here and there yourself." I shook their hands and said, "It was an honor to meet you both." And then was on my way.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Our New EP Is Done. Get It Here Now.

Get our new EP here:

<a href="http://paulchesne.bandcamp.com/album/get-up-get-out-get-gone-ep">Get Up Get Out Get Gone by Paul Chesne</a>




If you "Download Album" it comes as a ZIP file. If you don't know what that is, you can download each song at a time. Or you can just listen online.



Or if you pester me, I will burn you a copy and mail it to you. We are not printing a batch of CD's just yet.



It is pay what you want. Put in $0. Put in $1,000,000. It don't matter to me as long as you get it...



And send the link to anyone that you think might like this distinct brand of the chaos and the rhythm and the wonder and the ecstasy and the triumphs and the trials and the tales of the blues.



I am playing a 25 minute set tomorrow night at the Cinema Bar. Just me and Jonny Niemann. 9pm. Free



Halloween at O'Brien's. Free Party.


Now it's time for me to Get Up Get Out & Get Gone. I hope that you do the same. And I mean that in the nicest possible way of course.


Have a wonderful weekend,


Chesterfield

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

And Our 2nd Album White Man's Curse. Free Super High Res Download!

<a href="http://paulchesne.bandcamp.com/album/white-mans-curse">She Was Good Lookin' by Paul Chesne</a>

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Since our new EP is coming out soon...

Remember our first album. 2005 baby. I just re-pimped it out with it's own new home. Super high resolution free download. Enjoy!
<a href="http://paulchesne.bandcamp.com/album/wet-dog-man">For One Day by Paul Chesne</a>

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Yet more fan mail.

"There's A Place"

I got this message on Myspace about the song "There's A Place" which I've posted for your listening/injustice seeking pleasure.

what is it about?
[Name withheld]
9/11/2009 10:21 PM
To: Paul Chesne

Just curious. i dont listen to lyrics as much as I listen to guitar licks but I had a few questions.

"It's not about Jesus, It's not about money" that could refer to Charlatan preachers but why not aim the daggers towards Charalatan preachers , not an intire faith of people. If you said something against Muslims it would be ethnic hatred.

Here is my response:


I appreciate your interest in my song. If you think this song is about aiming daggers at an entire faith of people that could be construed as ethnic hatred, perhaps you should listen to something more bland. There's plenty of that to go around. Every religion wants your money. I use Jesus as a synecdoche for all religions. Could just as easily have said Buddha, Muhammad, Moses. It's a love song for a girl. She and I can be poor in the dirty city streets, but something bigger can make us happy. For me it ain't Jesus. It ain't money. I wish you the best if either of those things are what make you happy. I am not here to preach. I don't believe in any god. I have enough trouble believing in myself. I live and let live. Best of luck to you [name withheld].

Here are the lyrics:

There’s A Place I’d Like To Show You
It’s somewhere not too far
You got to keep your head up
Stop shufflin’ your feet
It’s not about Jesus
I don’t want your money

There’s A Place I’d Like To Show You
Gnarled up piece of paper on the ground
Throw away your Starbucks
Ignore that bum over there
And the one over here
Singin’ you this song

Right here in the filth
In the middle of the city
Where everyone is busy
And the cactus paints the shadows on the rise

Put the safety on your gun
Give away your drugs
Get peaceful in your mind
Open up your eyes
Either that or close ‘em tight
Gimme all your love

Your love can make me cum
And I can give you some
Put your hand in my cookie jar
What are we fighting for
It’s not about Jesus
I don’t want your money

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Thursday, August 27, 2009

My New Business Card

Some douche left his business card on the table at a bar I was at the other night.

The waitress left her pen.

So I decided to turn his business card into my new business card...

Please watch as a slideshow. It's like a flip book or a cartoon.


My New Business Card

Friday, July 10, 2009

Candy Cane Cotton Candy



She was the runt of the litter.

I wasn't there when my family drove an hour out of LA to the ramshackle Toy Poodle puppy mill to pick out a dog. But I heard that all the other brothers and sisters eagerly came running up and jumping on them. Rambunctious and cute. One of the little ragamuffins, however, just stayed in the back of the pen all quiet. My 6 year old sister at the time, Brooke (who has since graduated from college!), ran over to her and picked that one up.

She named her Candy Cane Cotton Candy.

Candy could do impressions. She did the Taco Bell Chihuahua perfectly. "Yo quiero Taco Bell?" and "Viva Gorpita."

That was the first evidence of her genius.

We gave her treats when she would growl & complain if she fell asleep on your lap and you had to get up to pee or something. Like "Can't you see I'm sleeping here. You're a bed. I'm asleep. No peeing or otherwise interrupting my slumbers. Jeez people. A little respect."

Any time we would play fight she would be on my side and bite Brooke even though she slept in Brooke's bed every night. I am bigger than my sister, she's 11 years younger than me, but without Candy's protective services I would have surely been abused.

When I went to UCLA, I lived at home. Candy and I would read for 10 hours a day. She was incredibly well read. She actually read the entirety "The Grapes Of Wrath" in 6 hours and got a 97% on her essay. After graduating from UCLA, she continued to read the newspaper everyday and was well versed on a wide range of topics. A friend of mine who just met her a few weeks ago, told me a couple days ago that they chatted about French poetry and Marxism and that they agreed on many points. I never studied that stuff yet so she must have continued her studies independently as well, once I moved out of the house.

The impressions and the degree from UCLA were one thing, but her real talent was the art of cuddling. She was the Yoda of cuddling. It is not hyperbole to say that she was One Of The Greatest Cuddlers Of All Time.

She was my friend, my confidante, my soul mate.

Farewell to our Lamb Chop. Our Tiny Poodle. Q-Tip.

Spoiled to death for 15 years straight.

Wherever she went just got a whole lot cozier.

Look for little clouds of cuddlement. And you will see her.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Dutch Quit The Band Then Forgot Again. (Don't Remind Him)



4th of July we played a private party at a posh restaurant on Abbot
Kinney. For about an hour there were 15 beautiful ladies dancing on
the normally immaculate wine bistro bar. (As evidenced in above pic!)

After the show, Dutch quit the band. Then we all argued. Tossing insults back &
forth around the van on our way to go see the fireworks show down the
street.

After sitting in traffic & arguing for at least 45 minutes, we made it less than a mile, turned around
and paid 10 bucks to park a few feet from where we parked for free before. From
there we stood on top of the van, drank our absconded booze and could
see the fireworks through a small sliver in the trees. Michelle peed
on the roof of the van. That was pretty awesome.

We next took our talent to a party, I put on
the bunny costume and requisite belligerence to go with it. They sent me home shortly thereafter in a cab.

The next couple days I was depressed & tired. Cuz Dutch (some 10 years and 500 shows later) quit the band and we worked, played and recorded for 20 hours a day
7 of the last previous 9. ("What do you want a diaper?")

So a couple days later I text Dutch asking if I really need to find
a goddamn new guitar player, he responds "What are you talking about?"

Just another week in the life of Paul Chesne & The Redundancies.

See ya Friday at 9:30 at an old church on 235 Hill St. SM, CA. 90405.
We're recording a live set there.

Also, Sunday at 5-8pm at the Venice Whaler. 10 Washington Blvd. Venice, CA 90291.
Both shows are free & all ages.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

More Fan Mail

As you may know, last week we played at the world famous semi-strip club Crazy Girls in Hollywood. It was kind of a dream come true to play at a place like that. The Beatles cut their teeth at real all nude bars in Hamburg, Germany. I mean -- Hot girls -- Rock and roll. That's why I picked up the guitar.

We've been working hard as a band. Lots of great friends turned out for the spectacle. And the club and the dancers were all very receptive. All in all the night was a great success. And we look forward to playing there again in the future.

One thing that stuck in my craw though is this message I got from a woman on my mailing list in response to my email notification about the show...

From (Name Withheld):

Yea, here’s a LITTLE DITTY FOR YOU:



Oh, gross. I’m so not in the mood for this.



Sorry, Dude, you lost me at the “gentlemen’s bar.”



Uh….. YUCK.



And…



NO, THANK YOU.



There’s no such thing as a “GENTLEmen’s bar.” That type of slut house would be for pigs, desperados (women and men included) and wanna-be-might-be-rapists.



NO.



And I’m bcc-ing all of my concert buddies.



There are SO many clubs (and so many bands), nudy clubs are just SO Unnecessary and classless...





Then a few minutes later before I had even responded to her message, she sent another one:


Here’s the first response, Paul. Take me off your list. Thanks for the good, clean, fun, times. No mas. She’s describing a get-together at a nudy bar.:



Let's see... The sound system & playlist were FANTASTIC, and the drinks also were pretty good. (If I remember right, someone else paid.) It's weird though watching women dance around - not really erotic, but then I'm not a guy or a lesbian. (Although, that night I came to the conclusion that women DO look better with curves.) One stripper actually reached over and grabbed my... well, what can I say -- I was having a Really Good Hair Day (...and BOY, did THAT get the attention of all the "gentlemen!") ;-)



It was fun at the time, but after a day or two (looking back), I felt like I needed to take a shower. I felt dirty (and not in a good way).



Have fun Paul.



Perhaps YOU need a cold shower. It’s about the music. Leave the sluts in the alleys, where they, and their GENTLEMEN customers, belong.


So those are the messages I received from this person. Anyone that knows my music, knows I like to joke around with the way I express my feelings towards women. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that any negativity I project towards women in a song is only because I love them or a particular one so much that it causes me pain. Or it's just a joke, like Eminem or Motley Crue. Life can't be serious all the time. I can't take myself seriously all the time at least.

If you care to read it, here is my response:

Dear (Name Withheld)--

Please do let all your concert buddies know where we're playing and when. They can come picket or get lap dances or both! Whatever suits them is fine with me.

I am a feminist and will always be one. My bass player's wife used to work at Crazy Girls. It personally offends me for you to call her a slut. I'm not sure what she or any other "slut" (I prefer to call them women. But that's a matter of personal preference I suppose) ever did to you. Whatever it is or was, I sincerely hope that you make peace with it and yourself.

As I said in my initial note, the Beatles played in strip clubs (actual completely nude bars, not the very regulated bikini bar that is Crazy Girls) for a few years in Germany in the early 60's. So you might wanna burn their records for the sake of consistency. We are musicians trying to make a living. If you can find a better paying gig in LA, I would be very surprised.

It's scary that you live in such a puritanical & ignorant bubble that you haven't noticed that the economy and the music business are both in an extreme state of collapse. I am not sorry at all that it offends you for me to be able to pay my band enough to eat for the week and work our asses off for 10+ years all the while barely scraping by. This is not some hobby or side gig. This is our life. Our heart and soul and livelihood.

You can call me a desperado or a slut if you like, but I will not stand for being called a "wanna-be-rapist." I would never hurt a woman and the implication that you make is self-righteous and irresponsible.

I am now trying to decipher the awkward sentence structure of your second response to my initial message. From what I can glean, it seems that a friend of yours got too drunk to remember who bought her drinks and then a stripper touched her crotch at a strip club. And then she felt dirty. Because of this event you now are on a crusade to tell all your friends to boycott my band. To each his own.

All this being said, I live life in the moment, love to laugh, live and let live and don't hold grudges. I wish you nothing but the best.

--Paul Chesne

Thursday, June 18, 2009

New Demo Song By Stephen Tegel Featuring The Paul Chesne Band


Steve has a dog named Bug. This is a very serious demo version of his theme song.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Just Got This Email Through My Website...

I "X'd" his name for anonymity's sake. But I think that he's probably found the culprit...

name: XXXXXXXX

Regarding: General

message: Paul,
This may seem very random but I believe I was at a gathering with you about 7 years ago in the la area. You were hilarious singing songs like "nobody likes me, that girl over there is pretending to but she can't stand me.". I think it was called worthless cu*t. I think anoter song was called the farmers daughter. I could be way off base and it might have been anoter Paul chesne altogether. Bit if it was you - you are a funny guy. And always left an impression on me and my friend

Submit: send

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Mike Stinson At The Cinema Bar

Photo gallery of Mike Stinson At The Cinema Bar on May 29, 2009


Mike Stinson is pretty much my favorite singer/songwriter in LA. He does that tear in your beer kinda stuff that George Jones and Hank Williams made famous. He's a master of charming your pants off through self-deprecation. His love songs are simple, honest and unpretentious. One of my old sayings is the darkest time is when the sun comes out. His embrace of the darkness shines.
When he plays at the Cinema Bar it's kinda like James Brown at the Apollo or Johnny Cash at Folsom or Paul Chesne & the Crazy Mutherfuckers at the Kibitz Room. I'm not sitting here trying to compare my band playing at the Kibitz to my favorite two albums of all time. I'm just saying that these acts in these venues fit like a glove. In our own small way each of us have places and moments that epitomize a time in our lives. Some of us reach grand heights. Some of us touch only a few souls.
Mike Stinson at the Cinema Bar is the perfect example of an under-appreciated singer/songwriter with an overqualified band playing at the smallest dive bar in Los Angeles that touches a nostalgic chord deep inside me even as I'm there. I stopped in last Friday for a few songs and a drink, but ended up staying for 3 hours on my only night off in months.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Save Your Own Soul. Ain't No One Gonna Do It For Ya.

Save yourself! Infidels. Fools. Fiends. Heathens. Hedons. Snake charmers. Handlers. Glossolalians. Exorcize ye demons! O'Brien's Tonight.

I hope your soul is one that has already been spared by His wrath. Only He can be 2 places at one time. We are reverse engineering this technology from an interplanetary Pod I found discarded carelessly in the rubbish. Will be debuting it tonight at O'Brien's. Be 2 places at one time! All ye saved and damned and darned souls! Free admission to all... Read More who care to enter the warmth and dubious honesty of our rock and roll embrace. There is no more religion. Rock and roll is dying. No superheroes. No Renaissance men. Just a cadre of rapscallions and thieves. Crooks and dynamos. Downtrodden with empty bank accounts and monkeys on their backs. All we have is our heart and song. Who will save us then? Just sign your name in blood on the dotted line.

It is ye then who shall be saved. Wherever you are or may be or never were before. We will be in the trenches fighting for you. For our friends most dear and our closest enemies. Bring your AK-47's and softest pillows. Boeing 747's and red lipsticks from the 99 Cent Store. Your softest raiments and your sharpest swords. Yellow high heels. Belts of silver. Anklets. Throw them in the fire. Your finest hours of cotton and spider's silk. This is the time of rations, but there can be no rations on elation. There can be no limits to ecstasy. No matter world of outside of war and road rage. Bad parking places. Expired registrations. Trips to the DMV office and Tijuana. Offensive wealth and generosity and greatness and mediocrity. It is a non-violent act of civil disobedience. Fingers bloodied. Throats scratched. Ears ringing. We will hurt no one but ourselves. We will wake up tomorrow ready for the next sermon. The next round of casuistry and unpretentious artifice. Superficial, superfluous and cubicle virtues. I wanna do it. But I don't have to do it. I don't wanna do it. But I have to do it.

O'Brien's Pub. 2941 Main St. SM, CA 90405
Free Entry!
21+
PAUL CHESNE BAND: 10pm-2am
MATT ELLIS: 9pm-10pm
If can't make it, listen to the music here:
http://paulchesne.com/whitemanscurse/whitemanscurse.html

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

We played for 6 hours on Sunday at the Whaler...


Here's what Paxton the drummer had to say about it: "Yesterday i played music longer than any human should. 6hrs is unheard of anywhere. That shit should be in Guiness or someone should blog about that. I felt things hurt in my body i never felt before. Fuck!"
Well Paxton it appears you've done just blogged about it! Yeah, it was 6 hours. We weren't lollygagging. We were bleeding, sweating, crying, jumping, running, dancing, loving. The picture above is of the crowd during hour 5!

An article posted on Yo! Venice! about the show.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Webb Sisters & Leonard Cohen : Elvis Perkins : Dahl Sisters

From time to time I like to spread the wealth of what some great and talented friends are doing.

The Webb Sisters, who sang on "I Hate Your Ever-Lovin' Ways" on the White Man's Curse album, have played 100 shows with a songwriting hero of mine, Leonard Cohen, over the last year plus. They're coming to LA with him on April 10th at Nokia Theater. Their new EP which features Mr. Cohen singing on one of the songs is in the top 20 on iTunes.

One of my oldest friends who was in our band for a few shows and who has shared countless bills with us around LA over the years, Elvis Perkins, has a new album hitting the stores on Tuesday. You can listen and buy it online already.

Also, The Dahls aka The Dahl Sisters aka The Curly Tops just played a big show last week opening up for Rocco DeLucca. They made a new video of a song that Eric aka "Dutch" aka the guitar player that I have been lucky enough to have in my band for nearly 10 years and 500 shows wrote.

Check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJA411Ev1YE

2 PC tours comin' up in April. Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, SF, Reno, Truckee, etc!

Details still being ironed out.

Hope this finds you well,

PC

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Horse Racing

One time I went to the horse races wth my dad and a whole host of his good friends who were total characters. Anydoodles, we're going to Hialeah down in Florida because we loved Miami Vice and that was the race track with the pink flamingos during the title sequence. The catch is you can't get in to the horse races in Florida unless you're over 16 or 18 or something. So we've got a limo and all these rich and famous fellas ready to roll. We walk up to the place and they won't let us in cuz I was like 12 but I looked 8. So we go back to the car and Walter Matthau takes a cork out of a wine bottle and burns one end of it. Then he paints a black charcoal mustache on my face. I was as blonde as could be. We walk back up to the same guy we walked up to a few minutes before like he wouldn't notice us and he turns us away again.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Stuck

Imagine a super hot white chick from Echo Park with the voice of Tammi Terrell wearing elaborate baby doll costumes playing ukelele with live hip hop beats.

I think sometimes you stumble across great talents in your life. Sometimes they are sung and others are unsung. I want to sing this one. I'm not the first to sing her praises. But I join the chorus. Holland Greco. Aka Heartkour. Aka the lead singer of The Peak Show.

This video and song completely mesmerize me. The counter says it has been watched over 1000 times. I think if you watch multiple times from the same IP address it doesn't register because I've watched/listened to it probably that many times myself.
Enjoy!

Monday, January 19, 2009

I Have A Dream

Friday, January 9, 2009

And The "Experts" Say The Economy Is In The Tank. No Problem Here!


I just took this at the Wells Fargo on the corner of Crescent Heights & Wilshire. You better run over there quick.
They're closing in a few hours!

Paul Chesne Band's Fan Box