Rolling Blackout

Post Holiday Madness Edition

Merry New Year, Everyone! 

I hope your holidays were just as festive as you wanted and that neither you nor your bank accounts are too hungover from it all. I survived physically but my wallet is $100 lighter than I anticipated. This would be due to receiving a camera-based speeding ticket in the mail, a first for me. Did you know that San Francisco now had these in operation? Did you also know that Bryant St., a 5-lane wide throughfare, is a 25MPH zone? Allow my obliviousness to serve as a public service announcement. (It’s on me.., literally)

San Francisco speed cameras: Here's where they're located across city, how much it will cost you if caught speeding - ABC7 San Francisco

So, what about resolutions for this year? Y’all got any good ones? My wife suggested driving a little slower for me (thanks, Hon…). I had something else in mind, in honor of my friend Anne who passed away unexpectedly this fall. Staying in contact with old friends was a big thing for her and is as good of a basis for a resolution as any. So, I found myself even more motivated than usual to reach out to some folks this holiday season. Instead of mailing out cards, I emailed out a holiday letter (typical family update with jokes about our dogs and shameless plugs for the band as well!) to friends and relatives and gave them the greenlight to forward to others. It reached a lot of people and even kick-started conversations with a dozen folks I haven’t chatted with in years. That was a great unexpected result. So, thanks to Anne, my resolution is off to a good start. Hope yours’ are as well! 

It’s 2026 now. That’s really futuristic sounding and has me wanting that space jet-pack TV promised me would be available by this year, when I was a kid. To help squelch that disappointment, that I’m sure you share, Rolling Blackout already has a number of shows lined up this year. The first is a big one at Bottom of the Hill on January 11th. 

Rolling Blackout San Francisco Tickets, Bottom Of the Hill Jan 11, 2026 | Bandsintown

The show is doubling as a release party for our latest song, Bohemia Blue and the release of the years work as an album Villagers and Pirates on Jan 9th. We’d love to have you join us to kick-off the New Year in rocking fashion. Bottom of the Hill is one of the cooler venues in SF and is a must visit for local music fans. Bottom of the Hill > Club Info

Just make sure you know where the traffic cameras are along your way there… 😉

Cheers!

-Erick

From The Drummer’s Throne

Happy Friday, Everyone! I hope your Thanksgiving was fantastic overall with good grub and spirits. I also hope everyone has been able to clear the craziness and food haze that this event often brings. We had 12 folks at my place which meant cooking 2 turkeys (one classically roasted, one smoked, both delicious!) 6 pounds of mashed potatoes, a pile of cornbread stuffing, 2 pounds of green beans, a gallon of butternut squash soup, ½-gallon of cranberries, a cauldron of gravy, and 3 pies. Lots of teamwork and early prepping were utilized, as were many beers and bottles of wine. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun because I am blessed with a family whose company I actually enjoy. (Thankful for that every year!) Now it’s time, for me at least, to crank up the exercise to burn off all of those totally worthwhile calories and get ready for the next food tsunamis that come with the holidays. Gotta burn it to earn it…  

Veterans Day Weekend Edition

Happy Friday, Everyone! Rolling Blackout has two shows this weekend in San Francisco. One for the night owls with beers and one for the early birds with coffee. (We try to be accommodating..) The first one is tonight at the O’Reilly’s Pub at the end of Haight St. It’s the old Milk Bar, but under new ownership, and nicely touched up, and much more inviting… Four bands total in tonight’s lineup, all folks we’ve played with over the past few years. Each band will play around 45 minutes, aiming to start at 8pm.

Rolling Blackout San Francisco Tickets, O'Reilly’s Pub Nov 07, 2025 | Bandsintown

The next one is on Sunday. We’re outdoors 10am-12pm, on Irving St. I have no idea what this event is like. Looking forward to finding out. 

Free Rolling Blackout San Francisco Tickets, Inner Sunset Flea Market 2nd Sundays (Seasonally April-Nov 2019) Nov 09, 2025 | Bandsintown

Since I live in glorious Concord, the ~30hr turnaround on these shows temporarily makes me yearn for the days when my wife and I actually lived in San Francisco. We were in the Presidio right after they made the old on-base housing available for the public to rent. Besides the obvious better gig commutes, that was a fun time in our lives. We felt like we lived in the woods IN the city. The great hiking trails, I could hear the waves hit Baker Beach from our apartment, the easy access to Tommy’s Mexican Bar and Grill (more on that in a later edition). Good times. While that was a quarter-century ago (!!), I still love that place and make a point to swing through it when I can.

Thinking about the Presidio reminds me that it was a former US Army base which brings Veterans Day to mind (how’s that for a sharp transition?). I’m not going to drone on from my soapbox about the importance of recognizing those that served. If folks get the opportunity to thank a veteran for their service, that’s awesome! If nothing else, please just take a moment to think about them. I put a shot of whiskey out for my grandfather (Army) and father-in-law (Air Force) every year with a toast to both. Thanks for listening (okay, reading).

Have a good weekend and hope to see some of you at the shows! - Erick

Gothoween Edition

Happy Halloween, Everyone! This is my favorite holiday for all the reasons you can imagine. As many good and loyal Rolling Blackheads (errr… will come up with something better later) know, we played Dr. Rick’s awesome Gothoween party this past Saturday. Needing a new costume both for that show/party and for handing out candy tonight, I drew from my pain as a Seattle Mariners fan to conjure up the Ghost of World Series Never (think A Christmas Carol with sports misery baked into it):

I’m proud to say that a few folks at the party got the reference and were even kind enough to offer up their condolences (2026 is gonna be our year!). I’m also proud to say that I kept the mask on while playing our entire thundering and well-received set, thinking that would simply be some fun Halloween schtick. It went over even better. Afterwards, a lot of people came up to me with props and disbelief that I played the whole set with that mask! Never did that before and maybe I should more often. There are a lot of potential benefits:

• No one saw me wince at errors or make any goofy faces during a challenging fill. (That’s better for everyone, trust me…)
• After seeing some video of the show, the mask face rocking back and forth in time was indeed pretty fun looking (schtick confirmed!).
• While I could see just fine, none of my fellow bandmates could confirm eye-contact. So, I had plausible deniability for missing a change! 
• The mask did however make my face ever sweatier than ever. Luckily, the elongated chin acted as a gutter system that diverted all that sweat into a stream on to my chest. Otherwise, drowning was a distinct possibility. 

I’m starting to think that the Slipknot guys might have been on to something. We don’t have a show currently scheduled for this Christmas season. But the next time we do, I might have to order up one of these bad boys:

Anyway, the Gothoween party was over the top as usual. Great crowd, dedicated music room, plenty of liquid refreshments, tons of fun. It’s a fundraiser that Dr. Rick organizes every year. There’s always a solid line-up of bands including Bunkermen featuring Dr. Rick himself. We feel blessed to have been invited to play there. Anyone in the general SF area should think about checking it out next year. Let me put it to y’all this way; during our set the supporting crowd included vampires, genies, mad hatters, ghouls, fallen business tycoons and a pole-dancing raven. I freaking love Halloween……

Have a fun and safe evening, Everyone! 

 

- Erick

Pirates on the Seas of time is a grand trick!   It was an odd time riff but it felt very accessibile - that opening riff came very naturally - startin with 7 - but pairing with a 9 - I then added the descending chromatic 3rd and whoa also 9.  All feel,  I didn’t  think about time - I counted afterward and realized I could tell Erick we’ll we’re playing 7/9 but really it’s 16 - so roll the 8s bro.   That clicked f'ing instantly and sounds rad.  The core riff is non-commital 1-5-7 but jumping the minor 3rd to D indicates the B minor - then complement with 4ths.  I had to write simple lyrics that could also be rhythmic here - Coming into the second section I wanted to build jazz chords in Bm without using the Bm, I love that math.  From there we can easily jump to switch keys to F#m - I had the really killer bass riff I recorded - that took a while to get right - very Geddy-ish run.  Finally we drop to Em over the C and D major sevenths and just work the bend, whammy, wah -  falling into a ghostly dark pirate space in Bm.  This also was a bit new - for the last 4 years with John - there was so much material - improvisational sections were often counterproductive.  For this section I wanted to listen to each stay on target and build the fabric.   We were committing to being free but conversing in an improvisational space jam - band shit.  So 4 and unrushed - but it had to be heavy - we’re talking deathless lich pirates here – death is the beginning.  So the goal was to just listen and carefully build layers, improvised but developing toward a thematic fabric.    The irony of this darkness is that we’re really basically in A major.  Once we found our sea legs - hehe we could naturally descend back to the third vocal section with that descent into darkness F#m chord.   Here I juxtapose the B minor pentatonic opposite the A major runs.   This entire section ended up coming just feeling easy, had a nice flow of complimentary sounds - intentionally leaving room, the lyrics were fun as hell and here we are ghost buccaneers floating in the dark barren wastes of wormholes and time vortexes.

From here the chordal construction descends to Em for the eyepatch - and then structure returns - we build back to speed on off the B and D with the hard stops - back home to the land of the living.    The lyrics also came easy punchy live -  transitional and flighty crossing and  just something god awful heavy but also tongue in cheek over the dark space.   The close just stacks for drama -  Root 4, 5, Octave over John and we lock back to the beginning.  It is a long, fakey technical but heavy AF - orchestrated but the fabric section is different every time - this is throwback music - how I wrote for the trio.   We have been absolutely killing this live - people love it.  Those seas of time jams are a little different every time - it’s a real 1970 vibe.  Hope you dig it! 

The Villagers Tears 

Every album effort has a song that stands out as the hardest to pull together.  On this album, the Villagers Tears demanded that extra songcrafting, attention, and hard band work to build a shared vision, try different things to burst from the chrysalis.  We had to experiment live a few times to help it along.   The original riffs were written in Spring 2023 while touring colleges with my older teens.  I already knew I wanted to emphasize an arpeggiated riff that switched between 6s and 8s - mostly because I liked them both and couldn’t decide.  Originally I had envisioned a more Rhoadsy riff - into a higher speed section but we never really got there it would have been slower, a longer gel period.  Once the clean delay tones started - that was the vibe.  I spent alot of time focused on diatonic guitar lines (which I am still working as we get more locked in) for John and I.  They did didn’t need to be fast.  But igt needed that Maiden-esque off set.  Going for a more anthemic and synchronized feel vs frenetic like Trigger Finger.  So we kept those sections down tempo and focused on seamlessly switching time,  stacking line and getting back to back on stage..   Finally it came together - with subtle variations.  The lyrics were written before we started learning the music but of course had to be slightly adjusted to match the musical & timing changes – I sang it first in a very low tale teller, liek when Dickinson gets low.  But I knew that it would be hard to pull off with the technical riffing in unison - so I asked Bill to take lead vocals.  He is always more comfortable with singing over changing time signatures.  The tale is classic high fantasy Tolkienian Dragon rock, Riders of Rohan; Saruman possessing Theodin.  I’ve always loved fantasy books, games, and movies.   If it’s a tale of magic there are no rules.   

Dragons and Vikings my Friends

The song opens light clean, airy, open and washed in delays but a little dark and mysterious.  We do hand offs lead vocals over a half verses and bring in a 3 man chorus right away.  That was a real treat - it’s a big marker for John - he’s not doing gang vocals, he is singing comfy in his range and when mixed wide - it came out really well.  Bill and I have always wanted to get that 3 part  harmony sound.  I feel like this really first time an honest effort was made. LOL.  After a half verse we slip the subtle 6->8 and 8->6 changes really kick in - that took a lot of dedicated practice to get that down and the intensity of recording sessions to really get it nailed.  We have so many rough recordings with someone on strings opening a verse in 6 or Erick taking us to 8 from the bridge –  so just lots of practice and agreement. Playing stuff like on your couch or looping and writing vocals is a cakewalk vs getting the idea to come together as a band.  A song like this works best when Erick has a clear committed & memorized structure so he can maintain the road map and he can swing comfortably.  Bill and I are rarely only doing one thing - there is no room for a lapse in concentration because of the tempo and space.  Off time notes in key are not allowed.  It's melodic vocal lines over arpeggiated riffs while changing time - with a lot of naked space - if you made a mistake - your track was shot and possibly the vibe of the take.  Eventually we got there.   Recording a song like this requires the right space too - reverb can ruin it.   There are already thick delays in play.  That's what out new studio offered - I'll talk about that process another time.  But for this song each sound had to be picked up once - gating would ruin the decays.   Slushy 70s grooves - bleed and bounce are fine - this needed pristine tracks. 

Changing in Flight

The original lead section was in 6 but it evolved naturally back to 8 which stole aggression and added flow - it kinda made more sense, matching the verse.   The heavy bridge back to 6 through that sludgy wicked C flat 5 turnaround - then  the lead hand offs and over the verse.  I’m not even sure when it was finished LOL - once I had the right mix and laid in the synth drones - it just sounded really well put together to my ear.  Sting said in an interview something like you never really finish a song - you give up on it- LOL.  That was true - I reached a point where it felt the like delicate balance of thunder had landed - plenty more to do but why.  But this version while good - we've arleady surpassed it - with comfort comes room go create more so this song will continue to evolve.

The Close

The song finishes with that double bridge and when John and I just stuck that final line in unison,  I knew we had the cliff drop in front of us - but we rolled the delicate outro as a fader - leaving a lot of wiggle room for terrifying long solo live – or a gentle close - fading it was noncommittal because - the tale unfinished.   And Bill had swapped a final lyric from weapons stowed ‘for the night’ - ‘ for the ride’ - which was so much better - because we can continue the hunt!  

The finished track feels clearly has British metal influence – and books too.  Droning, pulsing synths, arpeggiating - twining diatonics, succinct lead breaks and high fantasy themes – This is Heavy Metal Dragon Rock! A grind to a shared vision – I hope you guys like this one. 

Where are you

Now this is a song Bill and I recorded 25 years ago - on 2 inch tape… But never released.  This is all brand new cut in our new Rolling Blackout Music Co studio in Feb - we ran it till we had the cut!.  Where are you is one of Bills that we cycle in and out of standard rotation,  but it is especially good for 2 guitars - where we can work different inversions.   Bill probably that tape in his garage somewhere - with Ernie Taira and Bill's brother Dan on kit.  But it wasn't anywhere near as tight as this cut - and releasing music / studio time was a different game back then.   Anyway the song is a sneaky one with time - 6 to open, 2 bars of 5, 2 bars of 7 and into  an upstroke 4 with the chromatic slide.    It's so easy to mess up.  It took Erick a long time to get comfortable with it - and again with John added we had to come up with low-high string variations.  It let me stretch to focus on the mid-higher tones and flash riffs and John the chugmaster owned the low crunch.  The song came out great and we always love the gratuitous endings.  We all had a hoot recording the vocals  But when I went to mix - I kept Bill’s 2-3 tracks and my backing – John and Erick I made into a crazy effect at the end.  Heavy faster songs ironically seem easier to play and sound good but mixing is brutal.  I always find the dense tones tough to balance - hard to right - there is so much natural compression in those filthy guitars right out of the gate, so much of all sounds that it’s harder to find space in the field of sound.  For this my callout was focusing on those transitional pick slides  – and getting the inside out mix where the pick slide travels to the outside of the stereo field to meet the crunchy rhythm.  I definitely trained my ear on the the master Tom Scholz – this song was tone of finished early but I mixed probalbly had 3 overhauls and almost minor mix version.  It took for ever and I wanted to get it done for Bill's birthday - finally got it gthe spot right when I was ready throw in the mix towel!  I learned a lot mixing this one. 

Trigger Finger

Trigger Finger started as a Sunday morning acoustic workout on the baby taylor – maybe 30 minutes.  I had messed around the Trigger Finger riff - in F# but felt the C#m with B sus2 was a little more aggressive  than the F#.  And it was easier to riff at speed.  This really feels like 80s metal,  or like hard prog punk - it’s fun, fast and a little off the rails.  But this is one of those songs that is pretty easy to learn b/c everyone is pumped to play aggressive music.  The lyrics are almost meaningless - basically complaining about trigger finger, but also recognizing I earned it with years of shredding and then straight into dropping with cheese vocals about playing shows and partying - with a reference to a 3AM cannoli eaten in London in January - when John and I were on a business trip which just made us laugh.   The original was called the Train to Nowhere  but Trigger finger seemed more apropos – I will call out it this was absolutely brutal to mix - just a lot noise to manage and silence  – and funny enough I got a another trigger finger after the recording sessions, which sucks a little

I recorded the first version on October 7 2023 - I wrote the lyrics a year later.  Here we are in July… So 30 minutes to write - sit for a year, probably 30 minutes to write the lyrics - a few months of getting it tight and tuning the breaks and ending.  Finally recording it probably took 100 hours of trying to mix it. LOL

Now when listening to it I hear all these influences - Mr Scary - the riff, Boston the use of power sus4, Rush the fast major runs completely crossing up keys, Van Halen (the choral vocals and the chromatics ) and Priest - full metal breakdown -  lifelong playlist influences.  I didn’t think about that in the kitchen on a sunday morning  putting the pieces together – but looking back I hear it.  

Ride with Me

Ride with Me is from 8/2023 - after a run of shows - I sat down and wrote in one sitting on the baby Taylor.  It sat in the queue for ages - I don’t think I even brought it to the band for another year!  The time signature is consistent but sections change tempos and all the strings are thematically arranged.  We kept John’s rhythm less busy than the original acoustic recording to give the chorus vocals room.  It is always easy to start writing for my lovely wife Ceily, and go deep on spiritual observation of the journeys we take as couples building lives blindly, having not the slightest clue what really is next - we weave our stories together in a lifelong ride.  It projects from the personal …to all of our stories - broken but beautiful and we hand off to the next generation.  We played it in December as a test run and it was probably the best cut from that show.  The recording is a live take with John’s solo punched in and we polished up the vocals.    We dropped a mic on his amp blended direct and amp tone for his lead.  The song has a very wehere are are right now Rolling Blackout right now vibe.  There is a truly beautiful acoustic intro that I opted not to include here - as we replaced it with John’s melodic intro and a simpler opening picking electric pattern.   This song showcases different ideas about how to work with 2 guitar playing differing lines all the way through.  We maintain a natural feel.  It orchestrated but welcoming not overly technical.  Iactually change key quite a bit Am to Em, Am to Em/G to Dm and then a nearly whole tone aroungs - anchor ascending majors A and C before getting mach Em. 

Hot Ticket 

The HT dates back to Real Book jazz days 25-30 years ago.  I probably had 5 active music projects at time Rolling Blackout - (Hard Rock/Prog), Whiskey Pie (Americana Jam), Jazz with Alan (Straight Jazz), Wyatt Herb (R&B Funk Soul Jam)  with the late great Dave D'Ambra, and The Rig (Bluegrass) with Chris Pandolfi - and I was working at Dolby with Bill.  I can't believe how much time I had then, now.

I was playing with my neighbor Alan, a phenomenal piano player, and learning real book jazz but didn’t really have all the common groupings memorized so broke some rules.  I wanted bring some of that raw openness to a live rock band, put some edge on it.  So this was my first attempt write a traditional jazz structure.  Jazz is where jam came from - and you can take it anywhere! The Jazz Odyssey …  Just intro -> main vamp -> turnaround -> repeat with variation & extension while passing lead around the horn – let the improvisational mayhem get a little loose than resolving to a tight as nails turnaround and run the vamp them into the outro.  Most of the time you comp -rhythmic chording on point- not lead, which means you get creative playing of each other pumping rhythm and accents, bouncning.  And if it’s hot you keep going - add more players - it’s longer with more personality.

The song is pretty straight  -  all major/minor 7ths, 9th, 13ths, flat 5ths - building a simple melody into the chords  but not really following tradition – play what feels and sounds right.  So start on the turn around and keep it hot!.  I wrote this on my 1987 Fender Gemini II acoustic - made in Korea! I had toted it around since high school.   That guitar's claim to recording fame is that Prince pulled one off the wall of the studio and loved it - and used to over a lot nicer instruments for a recording Diamonds and Pearls. .  https://www.mixonline.com/recording/gear-stories-sylvia-massy-prince-and-gemini-ii-366174 

So we’ve been jamming Hot Ticket it for couple decades (and with several bands).  Hot Ticket was a long time the show opener.  We can loosen up, show off some chops, and it’s danceable.  Anyone can jump in and run through some variation of the Em/G Am pentatonic blues and carry on - yah just gotta know the turn around.  This studio recording is tight.  It was actually just 3 of us.  The first take of the day at Hyde Street - and after decades the first professional recording we tackled. - Erick’s headphones weren’t even working - he was flying blind on the kit.  John arrived about an hour later to do all the material we released in 2023.  Anyway, this track barely needed to be mixed but we did want to fill it in.   The rhythm was just so hot and locked in and we left it.  I just added some clean riffery at the end to make it thicker, give motion & swing, but maintain levity.  The outro vamp shows off layering a few clean decorations.  We had a section where Erick had sat back where he normally plays tricks - and ended up leaving a nice block of room for John to punch in a bluesy lead, adding variation to the mix - a little 60s bluesy licks.

John and I listened and thought it needed some keys - little stabs.  We tried a few different sounds and we settled on this warbly rhodes and a standard evolver type sound.  When it was done - wow - even after the blistering tasty leads - the clean friendly groove for the final vamps was such a winner.  My daughter was just dancing around and couldn't believe it was us.  This really rounded so much of the versatility demonstrated on the album.    And it is a perfect segue to a dirty Pirates that wil be released with the full album in a few weeks!