Check in daily to keep track of XIXA's on-the-road shenanigans—the dirt, grime, and glory, and all the hangovers and warts—from the Tucson band's current Bloodline swing through Germany, France, Italy, the Czech Republic and beyond. Today's entry by Jason Urman.


Sunday, July 16:

The first show of a Europe tour always has its intrigue, especially at a festival. Limited time generally leads to a frantic load-in and quick line check. Then bam! You're on.

n the confusion, sometimes you miss things. In my case, I fell victim to an old rock 'n' roll trick that while amusing, is most problematic. My NORD Electro 3 synth had been tuned down half a step, most likely by the previous user. Guess who plays the melody on the first song of the set?
Surprise!!

Live music, baby.

-Jason Urman | Berlin, DE



Go here to read Day 3 of XIXA's tour diaries.

Hi, I'm Sunny!

I am a 7-year-young male Heeler mix looking for my fur-ever home! I originally came to HSSA in September of 2015, then came back in November of 2016, and again in July 2017. I would really like to be in a home where I can get all of your love and attention so please no other dogs or young kids. I am already house trained and would prefer to spend my time inside. I would like to find someone who can take me on daily walks since I need to lose a few pounds! If you're looking for a companion dog who can relax by your side and is already house trained please come to HSSA Main Campus at 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd. to meet me. You can also give an adoptions counselor a call for more information at 520-327-6088 ext. 173.

Lots of Love,
Sunny (812708)

Saturday, July 15:
So I'm sitting here, backstage at the Transit Festival. The festival grounds are in Germany, about as far northeast as you could possibly go before touching Polish countryside. I've been to a lot of places ... but I've never been here. It seems like a dystopian hippy commune. The people are nice and friendly. I see a lot of hemp, Tevas, and dreadlocks (on white people—which, we can all agree, is a different type of dreadlock). The festival is humble in size and, consequentially, the ideal candidate for our first show—you see, we haven't been together on the same stage since our spring tour ended in mid-April. We will have to work out the kinks as we go.

It's the calm before the storm now. Gabriel Sullivan and Hikit Corbel (our French bassist) are re-stringing their guitars. I'm at the same table, writing this diary entry on my iPhone because my computer is being a punk-ass bitch. It's quiet. The festival continues outside. But we've chosen the serenity of our backstage room, to accomplish these tiny tasks at hand; the tasks that occupy 99% of our job. The festival goers oblivious to the sonic assault that we will soon unleash up them. Yessir ... it is quiet now. But, not for long ...

—Brian Lopez I Germany


Go here to read Day 2 from XIXA's tour diary.

Several weeks ago, Harmesh and Raksha Bhatti, owners of the Tucson-favorite India Oven, were burglarized. Thousands of dollars worth of damage was inflicted on the Bhatti's home, including the theft of family heirlooms, computers and a television, as well as, the destruction of the property and the remaining possessions within.

Since word of the incident has spread, community members from across Tucson have expressed an interest in helping the Bhattis recover from their losses.

One such effort comes from another Tucson-staple, the Twisted Tandoor. On Thursday, July 13, the Twisted Tandoor posted to their Facebook page that for the next four Mondays, a portion of all earned proceeds will go to helping the Bhattis restore their home.

Another community effort comes from India Oven patron Ori Parnaby. As a longtime frequenter of India Oven, Parnaby seeks to rally community support and alleviate stress on the Bhatti family through a crowd funding initiative on YouCaring. To date, Parnaby’s campaign has raised $933 toward its $10,000 goal.

In the coming weeks, consider dining at the India Oven (2727 N. Campbell Ave.) or Twisted Tandoor (4660 E. Camp Lowell Dr.), or donating to Parnaby’s campaign and showing the Bhattis your support.

For more information, contact the Twisted Tandoor at (520) 495-5499, or donate to Parnaby's Campaign at YouCaring.

Check in daily to keep track of XIXA's on-the-road shenanigans—the dirt, grime, and glory, and all the hangovers and warts—from the Tucson band's current Bloodline swing through Germany, France, Italy, the Czech Republic and beyond. Today's entry by Gabe Sullivan.

July 13. Day 2:
It’s like we never left. Like the six members and two crew have been in this van forever and a  day ... and right now, it feels like we may never leave this van.  Today we did the ceremonial dance of jumping in the van after our flights from Tuxon, hit the backline company here in Dusseldorf and grab the huge amount of drums, amps, percussion, and keyboards that it takes to make XIXA so violently loud, and drive the always seemingly endless drive to wherever the first date of our tour is.  This time around we have an eight-hour drive that will take us to Klempenow, DE where we will play the  Transit Festival tomorrow. You’d think that after 24 hours of  flying we would be in hellish moods about starting an eight-hour drive at five in the afternoon ...  but here I am writing this as everyone ferociously enjoys the reunion with our French bass player and sound engineer over beers, wine and joints. Here in the backseat of our home on wheels for the next 20-something days ... What was that Motorhead song again... WE ARE THE ROAD CREW!

—Gabriel Sullivan | Somewhere on the Autoban



























Go here to read Day 1 from XIXA's tour diary.

Recently I found an old box of cassette tapes—things even I could not destroy. I came upon a green TDK with the words “Giant Sandworms 1st Gig” scrolled on it. A neighbor of mine still  owned a tape deck—the old kind. I took it home and ran a pencil through the spools to loosen up 30-some years, sat down, switched off the light, pushed play, and for a second, I could almost make out the faces ...

Tumbleweeds Bar down on 4th Ave, ‘cross from Choo Choo's, stamping hands, a crowd, Giant Sandworms. The first four or five songs—a schizoid mix, stuff we must have been practicing, fashioned by an estranged anger, so necessary at that time.

The stink of the joint, P.A. beating the walls with sheets of noise, bursts of protest, beer bottles, young bodies moving through each other. That long urinal packed high with ice, drenched in the ache of impersonal chatter.

We finished an extremely loud song. A kid is heaving up his guts, a girlfriend whistling on two fingers, driving energy toward the stage, when all of a sudden, the whole place goes silent. Like a shipwreck, all of the oxygen sucked right out. Rainer steps up to the mic, “This is a tune by James Brown,” he says, “Has anybody heard of James Brown?”

It was not a rhetorical question or measured cool—it was just Rainer, excited and moved by the Godfather of Funk, urgently talking with the kids to vitalize the sincerity and reverence he held for the Man's music. But hardly a sound emerged. Rainer moved up, stomping his boot in time as he began two measures on the guitar, splitting a slow, unhurried groove.

East Germany, by way of Chicago, he cries “I can’t stand it.” A piece of my drumstick flies as Dave Seger and I jackhammer that thing, leaving not one fraction of space. Howe, to my far left, looks stunned, hitting the downbeat, entranced, but returns to further attack this number alongside us. Rainer, primal, and “oh you make my body wet,” with all his might, tries to wrestle “Cold Sweat” back to its original soil where the highest notes are reborn.

He had this thing. It was as if he’d chipped away at some private sculpture, his calling set a high bar as a man and a musician. His greatest achievements, his sons Gabe, Rudy and later, daughter Lily. He was a Cleveland Indians fan, worked down in the acrid pigeon artery of Joe's Chicago Store, filled with guitars and amps from a different era, often with opera playing as he carved, varnished, the deliverance of musician’s instruments. Everybody took their guitar to Rainer.

After he left the band, he formed Das Combo. With it, many great records and a loyalty to Nick Augustine, his side man, electric bass slung like a machine gun on one shoulder. On drums there was Will Clipman, then Bruce Halper and Ralph Gilmore. They would harness his power, achieved well beyond what most will ever hear as a white man’s blues. The website" Rainermusic.org " is a work in progress. David LaRussa and Fred Mills have liner notes and really cool pictures/videos. In November of 2017, Fire Records will release Rainer’s Worried Spirits and The Texas Tapes, both with bonus tracks and an astonishing audio restoration.

When I first received Worried Spirits 25 years ago, the song “Stones Throw Away” stopped me dead. It was Rainer with nothing but his soul and body. It is hard to pull away from, even as I listen today. It is so stirring, astoundingly full. The steel and the voice are one. “Stones Throw Away” is more profound than ever. It all but bruises the listener, trapped in the will to live. I leave you with the second verse; "Tell the men in Tel Aviv/We won’t go and we won’t leave/All the armies and all their tanks/And their homes and all their banks/Are only a stone’s throw away.”

Perhaps it is a lullaby to a world that has dug itself deep. It ends with an outro where the strings are tangled as they fade away in burning resuscitation.

I knew then and know now that this song and so many others are magic. This man will never repeat, not in this or any other world he felt under his feet.

Rainer Ptacek
R.I.P.
-Billy Sedlmayr

The monsoons finally made an appearance this week, cooling things down and taking the edge off our desert heat. Take advantage of these two-digit degree days by blocking off time to work in your garden, walk your dog and play in the (hopefully continuing?) rain.

Then, when the humidity gets to be just a little too much, curl up with a glass of iced tea and a movie you never quite managed to see in theaters.

Here's your look at the Top 10 most popular flicks this week at Casa Video:

1. Life

2. John Wick: Chapter 2

3. The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Check out the Tucson-famous Twisted Tandoor at their new digs! Formerly a food truck, this restaurant ditched its wheels and has upgraded to a brick and mortar as of July 1. Now located at the former Relish Kitchen & Wine Bar (4460 E. Camp Lowell Drive), the Twisted Tandoor is now offering a small lunch menu in tandem with the regular menu.

Treat yo’ self to an assortment of wraps, salads and a large selection of classic Indian cuisine.

This is a nice car chase movie antidote to The Fate of the Furious, a car chase movie that made me never want to see a car chase movie again, let alone Vin Diesel’s mushy mug.

The soundtrack is one of the year’s best, and the guy in the title role is a major star in the making. Ansel Elgort plays Baby, who we see in the film’s opening sequence driving the getaway car for a robbery, a kinetic chase choreographed to the great Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms.” The scene snaps with a colorful energy that’s been missing from car chases of late.

The best car chase movie in years, Drive, also featured a lonely driver and great vroom-vroom, but the soundtrack and look for that film were more meditative and hazy—not complaining; it worked beautifully. Baby Driver opts for a more clear-eyed, zippy approach, and it pays off.

Edgar Wright writes and directs for this, a project he took up after his failed dalliance with Ant-Man. The chases go off with precision editing, filmed in a way that makes you feel like you are in the car. And the soundtrack, featuring music ranging from Simon and Garfunkel to Hocus Pocus to Queen, perfectly complements them.

Grab your significant other, grab the kids, and hop aboard the Kingfisher’s 24^th Annual Road Trip. Starting this Thursday, July 13 through Monday, July 24, the Kingfisher—2564 E. Grant Rd—will offer a fresh selection of food and drink options from their Great Plains Menu (the latest installment in their rotating road trip menu series).

Experience the comforting fare of the Great Plains region, with such menu items as beer broiled bratwurst, corn soup, cedar planked great lakes fish, chicken pot pie and strawberry shortcake parfait. Act fast before the road trip picks up and migrates toward Back East, California/Hawaii and Down South. Each week's menu features the culinary creations of one of Kingfisher's three chef/owners and executive chefs.

For more information, visit kingfishertucson.com.