Untitled Document

Jill Sobule, Pollo Elastico, Guitar hero and Mattel?

Have had a fantastic ride since late August, starting with opening for the magical Jill Sobule. If you've never seen her show, this women brings it in an original and absurd fashion. She's extremely funny, political, and has songs that will break your heart and bring you to tears laughing all in the same line. I met her at sound check and immediately she was disarming and easy to be around. We started singing about things in the room as if it were straight out of an R Kelly video. She had a new song she was working on and said "come up and sing this part." Little did I know she was actually serious. When the time came she said "I'd like to thank Brian Brooks for playing with me. Brian where are you?" ......................Now there's a part I'm leaving out...................before she called me up she'd been riffing about hearing that Sting and his wife are swingers. I'd heard the same thing, and when I came up, I mentioned a few other things I'd heard as well. We sang her new song, and then we came up with our own song about Sting and his proclivities in the R Kelly fashion. Good things always end up in the gutter! At the end I mentioned that my name was "Brad." She felt embarrassed until I called her "Jane". To finish it off she sang "Angel/Asshole" which begins with the line "You are the angel, I am the asshole" Jill is a brave performer with a hobo heart. She rocks! Somewhere there's recording of this, and when I get it you'll hear it........

Labor day weekend found the return/reunion of Pollo Elastico at the HoCo Festival in Tucson. This is the 3rd year for the brothers Pollo and each time feels like a whirl wind of drinking and mayhem. The nights end to soon and the town has more tricks than a hooker at midnight. Thanks to KXCI for putting us on the Don Jennings drive time show and letting us extrapolate. We played on an awesome bill with Creosote, Ian Moore, and supported the Supersuckers, who are still the most badass rocking band, with better merch than the Stones. Good seein ya Eddie!....................We gave the boys a run for their money and Spandex Romans it was. You can check it on YouTube if ya dare.

The next day saw the video for "Hit Me Like A Smile" on the big screen for the Tucson Music and Film festival at the Rialto theatre. Thanks to Michael Toubassi for putting this portion of the event together and hope it continues next year.

On Sunday I got to play for the early version of Howe Gelb's BBQ, as well as reuniting with Mike Semple from Friend's of Dean Martinez and Secretary Bird. The younglings were running around and the sun was a settin'
Later in the evening it was over at Railto for a solo gig post movie. Thanks to Dave Slutes at Congress for all efforts and rooms.
Always great to hang with the Pollo brethren, and catch the new and old of Tucson. Tucson will always be in our DNA and it rocks like never before. Thanks for having us and it was an honor!

Now to rap all this up, the new Guitar hero has come out and if you twiddle your toggle to "Hold On Loosely" you can hear it be me.
And lastly, if your watching Saturday morning cartoons and you hear "If you've got wheels with monster traction we've got a truck that's ready for action, it's a touch ford truck" then it's the jingle I did with Zach Smith for Mattel's new Fisher Price toy truck.
All the best and see ya at the shows

Also, available at retail stores: Amoeba, Rasputin's, and the good friends at Mod Lang. Just finished up a podcast and interview with Jeff Shelton for his Kscu Power Pop radio show. You can download the interview and podcast here. KSCU Podcast Don't forget the CD release show CD Release April 12th @ Cafe Dunord. Performing in full band regalia will be (Paul Hoaglin, Todd Roper, Matt Cunitz, Patty Espeseth and special guest Marc Capelle & Caroll Ashby. BRAD BROOKS myspace Finally we have a date and it's gonna be major! The sophmore release of"Spill Collateral Love" will coincide with the release of Little Yellow Perfect and their new cd "Simple Devices" as well as performance by one of my favorite artists in the Bay Area, Etienne de Rocher. This event will also be DJ'd by the one and only Bastard Prince. Get tickets now before the president finds out what your doing! Ticket web

"Your a tomato.......your an asparagus farm.............. your a flying fish pond"
These were the words from Video Producer, editor, and drum pounder in my band, Brian Zalewski.
We just shot the video for "Hit Me Like A Smile" at an indiscriminate fishing pier near Pac Bell Park in Frisco.
The extras were fed, the piano was transported, strange people came and talked to us all day, and no one landed in the water except me. (Almost) :)
Special thanks goes out to Brian Zalewski who is producing and editing it for release with my CD "Spill Collateral Love."
The video was shot by Greg Slick (real name), who brought a steady arm and a calming influence, "Dude your gonna fall in the water".
Major love goes out to Fraser Lunney for technical support, security, and stunt piano stud R2D2 impersonator.
Chris Stevens and his Dad also made an impromptu appearance on a tour of SF piers, only to see me, the piano, and the extras hashing out details. "The pidgins need more bread"
When this is edited and finished I'll have it on You Tube for your ridicule.
Thanks to all, happy holly daze!
Cheers
Brad

Pollo Elastico is releasing it's retrospective Cd "BANTAMS" on Saturday Sept 2nd as well as performing with Fishbone for the 21st Anniversary of Club Congress in Tucson, Arizona at the Rialto Theatre. The Enhanced Cd will also be available through CD Baby and includes all the songs from Jarupa Mae as well as material recorded with Randy McReynolds from 1990. This will also include bonus DVD footage from a warehouse frolic fest from 2/3/90.

Lastly "Pollo Elastico" www.myspace.com/elpolloelastico is going to be releasing in September the whole rubber chicken collection on CD. Tentatively titled "Bantams", this will include tracks from "Jarupa Mae" as well as 5 songs that were mixed at Klickitat Band Camp by Sir Shay Scott. These 5 songs were recorded at 7 & 7 Studios in Tucson Arizona by Randy McRenolds in '90. Pollo Elastico also has a new my space you can check all details as well as the future show at Club Congress on Labor Day weekend.

The new record "Spill Collateral Love" is now in the magical mastering phase with John Golden, and will be looking for a home near you. March 30th @ The Red Devil Lounge is a live performance with the full band, (Paul Hoaglin, Mike Taylor, Patty Espeseth, Brian Zalewski, Teri Untalan) Teri will be opening the show with her exquisite voice and band, and 77 El Deora from Marin Co. is also on the bill and features the amazing vocal abilities of Jen Courtney.

My lord where does the time go? A hole in the ground or something! After months (more like years) of heavy meditation, the final mixes for"Spill Collateral Love" are finished. Thanks to the amazing talents of Scott Solter, Paul Hoaglin, Shay Scott, Davy Vain and Michael Taylor, the mixes will soon be on the way to John and JJ Golden for mastering. The final song to make the cut is a gem called "Love on My Sleeve" We call it "Baroque Bacharach." It's dark, lush, and kicks like a soldier. There will soon be some new MP3's as well as new additions to the website. We will also be doing some shows in late March and looking to get this music into your hot little hands sometime soon.

Cheers

Brad

In the past year I've been recording new material at Klickitat Band Camp with the wrecking crew of Maestro Paul Hoaglin, Sir Shay of Scott and the Michael Phillip Taylor Experience. Klickitat Band Camp is more than a studio run by pianist extraordinaire Shay Scott in Portland Oregon. It's a candy store with wings and prayers, musical insanity, midnight organs, and cathartic friendships. All KBC material is being recorded analog 2 inch by Sir Shay of Scott as well as Hoaglinier equations by Paul. The Maestro is basically playing anything I can get his lovely hands on, and turning it into love. Sir Shay is guiding my voice through it's many permutations and playing the shit out of any piano sound in sight. The Michael Phillip Taylor Experience is rounding out this fortress with his own pop platitudes on guitar and drums, as well as supreme wardrobe

I'm currently in the process of finishing all KBC tracks at the fine establishment run by John Vanderslice called Tiny Telephone. Seaman Scott Solter and Maestro Paul and I have mixed tracks as well as added strings with Patty Espeseth (cello), Teri Untalan (viola) www.teriuntalan.com and Alan Molina (violin). This string trio went beyond the call and created some amazing work, bringing "the guts of the passion". Too quote Teri.

I'm also finishing up more of the material recorded at the Groove Room with Davy Vain.

Some of which has been up on my website for your downloading leisure. There also is a new section of live video footage from our show at Slims on June 24th of 2004.

"The Velvet Flu" was edited by the one and only Brian Zalewski, and recorded by Damian Rasmussen. This was captured in full Klickitat Band Camp mode with Brian Zalewski (drums), John McDill (bass), Mike Taylor (guitar), Shay Scott (keyboards), Paul Hoaglin (guitar), and yours truly. More from this event will be included as editing gets done.

On the live front, I had the pleasure of playing in London at the 12 Bar www.12barclub.com and the Cavern Club in Liverpool last October, as well as opening for Lisa Loeb www.lisaloeb.com at the Cafe Dunord www.cafedunord.com in November. I'm looking forward to finishing up my new record and hitting the proverbial pavement soon after its Feb '07 release.

And lastly the 3rd version of "Karaoke Revolution" has been released by Konami Karaoke Revolution produced by the incomparable Mike Mchale and Wavegroup Sound with Will Littlejohn. This video game allows you to compete with your drunken friends and sing to me, singing as someone else. It will all make sense in your next life. But trust me, it rules.

I’m looking forward to seeing all of you, and thanks.

Love

Brad

Late March we're back to the fantastic Klickitat Band Camp to record some new material with Paul Hoaglin, Todd Roper & Sir Shay Scott.