8leggedmonster.com

Ray Charles is back…

8 Legged Monster Admin — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:38:18 +0000

We’re doing round 2 of the newly formed “Rayband” at Coda on Friday, July 23rd. The show starts at 10pm and it’s $10. Tickets available at the door and online here: (TICKETS)

If you made it to the first show then you’ll know that we’re giving the music everything we got. The lovely and talented Raelettes (Allegra Bandy, Audio Angel and Karen Fremont) absolutely stole the show last month and I imagine they will again.

We’ve got the full 14 piece band again and the dance floor will be open for anyone who cares to use it…except for the girl who almost broke her face last time….she should maybe just listen this go-around.

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Rayband, the music of Ray Charles

8 Legged Monster Admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 22:20:17 +0000

I listened Ray Charles when I was a kid and I knew that it was great music back then. But about 4 years ago I heard “Hallelujah, I Just Love Her So” and I was completely blown away. It occurred to me recently that the music Ray made on Atlantic Records may be the most honest music he ever laid down; no one was telling him what to play, he was just doing his thing.

After listening to pretty much everything Ray ever recorded I started to put my pen to some work. I picked 20 of my favorite tunes, some hits and some lesser known songs, and I started arranging them for a small big band and 3 Raelettes. When I started telling people what I was doing I got the same reaction every time “Can I be in the band?”… so at least I’m not alone in my obsession.

The hardest part of putting the band together was finding the right singers. I’ve always loved the way Lech from the California Honeydrops sings and he was thrilled at the idea of doing a Ray-band. As for the Raelettes, I had just about every female singer west of Mississippi interested in singing. I ended up with 3 awesome ladies, Allegra Bandy, Rashida Calendening & Karen Fremont.

We’ll be kicking things off at Coda on Thursday, June 3rd at 9:30pm, tickets are $7.

The complete lineup is as follows:

Mike Irwin Johnson – Bass/Arrangements,
Lech Wierzynski – Lead Vocals,
Allegra Bandy – Vocals,
Rashida Calendening – Vocals,
Karen Fremont – Vocals,
Niel Levonius – Lead Trumpet,
Joel Behrman – Trumpet,
Scott Larson – Trombone,
Gabe Eaton – Alto Sax,
Rob Barics – Tenor Sax,
Marcus Stephens – Tenor Sax,
Fil Lorenz – Bari Sax,
Jay Standards – Piano,
Elizabeth Goodfellow – Drums

Jaz Sawyer’s B-day Bash

8 Legged Monster Admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:33:34 +0000

Yup, he’s getting older and ….wiser? Come to Club Deluxe on Friday, May 14th at 9:30. 8 Legged Monster will be kicking off an all-night celebration of the day Jaz gets older, according to all printed records.

Visit our Schedule page for more information.

Club Deluxe 4/30 9:30pm

8 Legged Monster Admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:42:18 +0000

There is no better place in SF to go hear straight-up jazz music… fact! If God came down from heaven and started a jazz club his only competition would be Club Deluxe.

This Friday (April 30th) we’ll be cranking out some gut-bucket bebop at around 9:30. Anyone in the mood to hear folks having fun and getting paid to do it is welcomed and encouraged to also have a good time. The show is $5 and it’ll be the best damn $5 you ever spent.

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SF Jazz, Sun Ra & the Baytaper

8 Legged Monster Admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:43:34 +0000

We recently played a Sun Ra tribute for the SF Jazz Hotplate Series. Below is an interview with Mike and clips from the show:

SF JAZZ Hotplate – Sun Ra:

Also check out a recent clip from a show at Coda, done by none other than the Baytaper himself:

Copy and paste into your browser:

http://www.baytaper.com/2010/02/19/8-legged-monster-live-at-coda/

Have a drink…we’ll sound brilliant

8 Legged Monster Admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:08:45 +0000

This Friday (Feb 19) at 10pm we’ll set out to attack another round of unsuspecting listeners at Coda. We might pull out some Sun Ra, we might pull out some NOLA revival…you never really know…I never really even know.

The first 5 people that request a good song get a free CD… request a bad song and we’ll make you feel weird about it.

Here’s a flier (click to enlarge):

Headin’ back to Coda

8 Legged Monster Admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:32:00 +0000

Oh yeah, it’s good to be back!

We’ll be at Coda on Friday, January 29, 10pm ($10).

Apparently there are still a handful of people that haven’t checked Coda out yet!! It’s a beautiful room, amazing food & drinks, great sound…c’mon, get off the back of your laps and head over there. We haven’t met a musician yet that doesn’t completely love playing there. And when it comes to clubs musicians are the harshest critics… or the biggest babies, however you wanna look at it.

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Coda: 1710 Mission Street SF, CA 94103 415-551-CODA (2632)

The Music of Sun Ra for SF Jazz Hotplate

8 Legged Monster Admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:32:30 +0000

Date, time & place: January 14th, 9pm. Amnesia bar, $5. SF Jazz Hotplate

The SF Jazz organization has been putting on a jazz-legends tribute once a month at Amnesia. So far they’ve paid tribute to Ray Charles, Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. We have the special pleasure of bringing Sun Ra’s music to their plate…of hotness.

Those who are familiar with our music know that we enjoy a good dabble in the world of Sun Ra; however, on this night we’ll be doing ONLY the music of Sun Ra. Mike has spent tireless hours transcribing a variety of his favorite Arkestra gems for the show…trans-galactic travel will be an inevitability.

We also recommend arriving early to catch a screening of “Space Is The Place” preview below:

Clips from baytaper.com

8 Legged Monster Admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:49:41 +0000

We were fortunate enough to have the great Baytaper visit us at Yoshi’s. Most Bay Area music lovers already know whats going on with the Baytaper; but if you don’t, you can do yourself a favor by visiting his website: www.baytaper.com.

Here’s a video clip he took at Yoshi’s from “Basin St. Blues”; Olmos’ solo shook the ground that night:

There are a few audio clips from the show, also captured by Baytaper, on our “Media” page here: 8LM Media.

The Baytaper has recorded live shows for a ton of great Bay Area bands; rock, jazz, hip-hop and just about every style you can imagine…. basically, he’s awesome, end post.

“Vol. 2″ available on iTunes

8 Legged Monster Admin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:27:45 +0000

We’d like to thank all those who made our CD release party at Yoshi’s SF so memorable; pictures and audio of the show should be available on baytaper.com soon. The following link will take you to the iTunes store if you’re interested in checking out the record or some of the tunes on it: 8LM iTunes Store. Below, you can view the cover and liner notes:

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Vol. 2

(liner notes)

We also have a show coming up at SF’s new Jazz Supper Club, “Coda” (website here:www.codalive.com), on Friday October 9th at 10pm. Please come by, and musicians, feel free to bring your instruments and sit in with us.

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