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one year ago today

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Big Changes 11 11 11

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Big changes are afoot on this dawn of 2012, and yes sometimes it's sad.

this just in:
FIRE DOG drummer of five years, Brandon Manitoba has decided to hang it up with the first of the year. : ( We commend his service to the band and he will be surely missed.
He has played one hundred and twenty five shows, travelled seven states, recorded three studio albums, and drank one million busch beers over the past five years. We LOVE you Brandon Manitoba and you will be
missed missed missed

cheers to you Manitoba

That being said, you have just a couple more opportunities to see Brandon banging out tunes with FIRE DOG. Don't miss it, because it will never be the same.

FIRE DOG will be performing this Friday, November 11th at Off Broadway as part of the STL Loud III release

STL Loud offers local bands the opportunity to record one song at R & R Studios in Dogtown, putting these on a local compilation. This is the third installment and features music by :

9:00 FIRE DOG
9:45 The Reeling Gilly
10:30 Superhero Killer
11:15 Rockwell Knuckles
12:00 Funky Butt Brass Band

the end of ten

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

It's been an active year with FIRE DOG playing over 60 shows in 23 cities and 12 states ... 31 of these shows outside of our home city STL, most recently in Columbus, Philadelphia, D.C., Brooklyn, Chicago, Kansas City, and Lawrence, KS!!

Our plans for the new year include new music to be released, a 7" record called Wait 2 Die !! It is our best music to date and includes special guest appearance by members of Fattback and Ellen the Felon, a tribute to Dave Hagerty !! I can't wait for you to hear it. Here's a three sets of three words for 2011 -- double the oneness -- connect the dots -- wait to die!!

W E S Tside

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

I recently returned from a summer tour scenario that found me in the Golden State : California. Kind people, cool breeze. I played solo sets in SF and San Diego before connecting with Love O Raman, Mikal Shapiro. We travelled across the southwest playing shows in Albuquerque, and Manitou Springs (CO). We also hit four open mics in four states in four days before meeting Celia and Brandon in Kansas City for epic shows at The Record Bar (KC) and The Replay Lounge (Lawrence, KS).

Many thanks to hosts Danielle, Brad ES, Nick Baker, Matt Owensbee, Mikal Shapiro, and Dean!! Your KIND hospitality makes it all possible.

Highlights :
*pints of Guinness with friends from Como at Irelands 32 in SF
*Pleasuremaker show in the Mission
*ocean water long board
*endless sushi / sake compliments of ES at Green Rush Sushi Bar in San Diego
*catch ball swim swim
*Nick Baker sitting in on an array of percussion instruments in ABQ
*Colorful Colorado's Great Sand Dunes and Garden of the Gods. Thanks Matt for jamming with us at Ancient Mariner
* Mikal Shapiro and Shane Ogren sitting in with FIRE DOG in KC / Lawrence : )
hey, it's Mikal Shapiro with a tumble weed

TransformTOUR 2010

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

THANKS to Zupa Venu -Mikal Shapiro and Meghan Orbek- for TranformTOURing with us!! we LOVE these ladydudes We played twelve shows in fourteen days throughout the southeast. Thanks Nashville, Short Mountain, Asheville, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and St. Louis. For hosting us and spreading the LOVE!! It all blew up on Easter Sunday with the Jesus Christ Superstar Shadowplay Spectacular!! (if anyone has pictures from that night, please do pass them on)

Louisana Levee

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

We're getting ready for our final new orleans show at The Allways Lounge.

a word from our crew :

Celia says, "Dazzling" "I don't give a f#*ng crap about your virtual face ass blog ... i just tore a bunch of hair out of my head" -- Meghan Orbek. "This tour just keeps getting better and better!!" -- Mikal Shapiro ...
Our hostess Lea says, "I can't wait to hear that one song again!!"

: : :
as for me i can't wait to tell Dennis that Ginsu says "Hi!!"

crawfish etoufflw ?

from CASHeville, NC

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

a message from Meghan Orbek of Zupa Venu -- "beautiful Asheville welcomes us in it's loving arms with a blindingly successful show at the delightful Fred's Speakeasy. we love it here" ... today we are taking it to the streets ... it' a LOVE-O-RAMA!!

Little Hollywood

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

i blogit from Little Hollywood in Nashville, TN. sitting in the sun room at Graham's beautiful spanish style home. springtime rules!! We are getting ready to hit the streets with Zupa Venue. busking on the sunny side before we check out our new friend Jesse's studio. Then Brown's Diner tonight!! We may just see Nick Lowe eating a hamburger : )

it's all part of TranformaTOUR 2010 !!

The Midwest and Colorful Colorado 2010

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

FIRE DOG just wrapped up a seven date series in the Midwest and Colorado. Playing shows in Columbia, Kansas City, Lawrence, Ft. Collins, Boulder, Denver, and St. Louis.

Thanks to these amazing people who helped us spread the LOVE!!Noah Earle played a sweet opening set in Columbia at the Cafe Berlin, which by the way has a delicious menu of local foods : ) Mikal Shapiro was our gracious Kansas City host opening her home to our entire crew. We LOVE you Mikal. You know that we do.

The Record Bar put together a great show in K.C. with local band Brannock Device These veteran rockers threw down!! The Replay Lounge also put together an amazing show in Lawrence with our local favorites, The Kinetiks We LOVE this band for real!!

check out these awesome photos from our show in Lawrence @ The Replay
Thanks to our new friend John Hamm for shooting it up!!

Also many thanks to Dean for hospitality in Lawrence!!

From Lawrence our crew split ways, with Brandon and I heading back to St. Louis while our mad-cap group of drummers and dancers, Willy Zepp, Annika Johnson, and Holly Rose continued west with FIRE DOG master bassist, Celia.

I met the crew in Denver by airplane days later. Manitoba couldn't make the trip : ( but we would meet up with video artist, Aaron Young (Boulder, CO), who would install Wolfpuppy in Isis Wings at each of our Colorado shows. The piece included dance and costume by Holly Rose, video by Aaron Young, and improvisational music by Willy Zepp, Annika Johnson, and FIRE DOG!!

Once in Colorado we were greeted with the warm hospitality of Lisa Foster (Estes Park), the Rivas family (Denver), our new friend Ron (Boulder), and Mike Craft and Jay White of New Belgium Brewery (Ft. Collins)

Thanks to Surfside 7, Chrysalis House, and Gyspy House Cafe for hosting our shows. With Willy and Annika's choreographed dance, Aaron's video work, and Wolfpuppy hoopin' into Isis Wings, it was all a rather amazing and unique experience!!

And we made it back to St. Louis in time for LOVE-O-RAMA's annual Valentine show. The party at The Skatium was sweet and mellow and we celebrated LOVE with many wonderful people. Hey we even busted out the bubble for projectionists VJ Evil Che and Patricio. Thanks guys!! In addition to the V-Day festivities we celebrated the Lunar New Year. It's the Metal Tiger. oh yeah!!

I hope to post more photos if i ever get a new computer. Mine just got the death sentence (piece of junk)

Thanks everyone for the the beautiful and amazing work!!

LOVE,
mark o polo

May These Changes Make Us LIGHT

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Thanks to all who participated in this year's installment of "May These Changes Make Us LIGHT."

The Series began with the premier of the the new movie, "Atnas Akinah : The Adventures of Santa's Daughter." Writers and artists Kelsey LaPoint and Lyndsey Scott teamed up with filmmaker Rebecca Rivas to put together this unique and inspiring movie.

Shot and edited in just three weeks, the movie features some of St. Louis's most talented artists and tells the story of Atnas and her mission to get rid of the gunk we wish to see go. "Release" !!

The FIRE DOG song, "Transmitters" is featured in the movie with the closing credits!! We are so glad we got to be included in this exciting project. Thanks YOU

For more about the movie click on Atnas :

The next piece in this series of performance brought us to a new book store of Cherokee St. called "The Archive."

It was in conjunction with the Cherokee Print League and the Archive's soft opening. The streets were bustling with activity and the event began with music by the off kilter jazz riffing of local trio The Algorhthms. Celia's Yuletide Express followed with a rousing invocation that had everyone in the space singing and dancing.

Following this high energy merriment were vinyets by Amber Dover / Holly Lambert (dance, video, installation), Willy Zepp / Amelia Stone (dance), FIRE DOG (music), Lyndsey Scott / Jenny Shriner (animations and video pieces from Atnas), Carri Dobsch / Rebecca Rivas (dance, acro-yoga). Thanks to all for throwing down. The people LOVE it when we "Let the sun shine in"!!

And thanks to The Archive for the amazing space. You've got to see this mind-blowing collection of books !!

Thanks Janice Mansfield for these photos

One week later we took the party to the Community Arts Media Project CAMP for singing, screening, and dance-partying. CYE kicked off the show, followed by a screening of the movie (this one for the kids from the neighborhood. many of whom were in the movie and had not yet seen it), and DJ Spencer rolled out the night with the funky jams to dance dance dance.

Thanks CAMP and keep up the great work that you do.

The final piece in this series of events happened in conjunction with Artica's Winter Solstice celebration. It was a cold Saturday afternoon on the riverfront. The breeze cut like knives as the train whistles sounded. Luckily the performative installation known as "Chicken and Waffles" warmed us all as we witnessed the slaughter of several small birds who were then fried and served with waffles... Delicious!! Thanks to : Robert Van Dillen, Mike Pagano, Patrick Ritchey, Willy Zepp, and DJ Spencer for curating the scenario.

FIRE DOG duo played a high energy whiskey set with Willy Zepp sitting in on percussion and guest singers keeping us charged!!
(this photo comes from St. Louis Daily Photo Blog * thanks Bob Crowe)

Then the Yuletide Express warmed it up with singers huddling together sweetly.

Artica was a fantastic spectacle and we were glad to be a part. Check out these photos courtesy Tom Dykas.

A space for gratitude for everyone who makes these changes LIGHT. Let's do it again and again.

Feliz 2010 !!
-- mjp