2012 UK and Europe dates updated

Jonathan Richman ©Nathan Connelly via NGCCartoons All Rights Reserved

The tour will go continental in March. Please let us know if you come across other dates. Thanks!

(Previously in UK)

Sun 4 Mar Essen, Germany Grend (tix)

Tue 6 Mar Frankfurt, Germany Sinkkasten Arts Club (tix- no info)

ALSO IN ITALY (info courtesy Alberto via Bob in comments, venues unknown):

09 MARZO 2012 - FIRENZE

10 MARZO 2012 - NAPOLI

11 MARZO 2012 - ROMA

13 MARZO 2012 - MAROSTICA (VI)

14 MARZO 2012 - TRIESTE

15 MARZO 2012 - MODENA

Sun 18 Mar Murcia, Spain sala 12 y medio (no info)

Mon 26 Mar Feyzin, France L'Epicerie Moderne (tix) w/ Zak Laughed

Thu 29 Mar Paris, France La Flèche d'or (tix)

Confirm with venue before making travel plans

Thanks to Nathan Connelly for the use of the great cartoon!

Bohemia: Friday at The Smell in LA (9 Dec 2011)

Jonathan Richman with Tommy Larkins - 'Bohemia' via BLACKTENTPRESS

Elsewhere (Santa Ana), Todd A writes:

In what’s become an annual tradition, I went to see Jonathan Richman last Thursday night. This time, he was in the Constellation Room at the Galaxy Theater. (read more, great pics too)

the man does what he wants

image ©2011 RosebudPenfold

︙Sam Lefebvre at SF Weekly on Wednesday's show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco:

Indeed, when he played "Old World," a cut from the first Modern Lovers LP, it was straight-ahead, but inflected with the nervous and emotive vocal style cultivated on recent records. Only half the song was actually performed: it ended abruptly, and it was difficult to tell whether that was intentional or not. But Richman gracefully began a new tune immediately. The man does what he wants. (read more)

Sex Pistols – Roadrunner via geminiLIZ

︙Sean J. O'Connell at OC Weekly on Thursday's show at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana:

Johnny Rotten once told Spin magazine that he "hates all music." "Not one song?" asked the interviewer. "Oh yeah," he responded. "'Roadrunner' by the Modern Lovers." How's that for an endorsement? (Read more)

Old World
Roadrunner

next week in London: an evening with The Modern Ovens, rock food, and avian sex

The Modern Ovens - 'Astral Plane' via AliceBarfield

If you're in USA West Coast next week, then of course you should see Jonathan Richman and Tommy Larkins at any of a number of places (see sidebar). But if you're in UK on the other side of the astral plane at that time, why not snag a ticket to see The Modern Ovens perform as well as experience an evening of erudition about bird love and learn about a worthy charity cookbook?

Via The Quietus: Monday, 5 December- Brighton-based British Sea Power's Jonathan Richman tribute group The Modern Ovens, Klüb Gütenberg at The Old Queen's Head, London (tix) (read more)

Astral Plane

"They sure sound like a HOT band!" - Jonathan Richman (via)

faster miles an hour

Image: Rhythm & Pencil Vol.00000000000001

The Daily Guru rhapsodizes and expounds upon teenage Jonathan Richman's classic Modern Lovers song: The simple chord progression found on "Roadrunner" bears an uncanny resemblance to that of "Sister Ray" by The Velvet Underground, and yet Richman manages to give this arrangement a fresh kick, stripping it down to a more basic and powerful sound.  As the chords ring across the track, one can almost hear him "creating" the punk rock style that would explode a few years later, and in many ways, punk rock was never better or more pure than this single performance.

Read more on The Daily Guru

• Roadrunner on Ramon's web site (note the updated URL- Ramon recently moved the entire (Unofficial) Jonathan Richman Chords page)

Fast-forward a few decades (oh my, where does the time go?) –

Of the more recent September 25, 2011 show in Portland, Oregon, Holly Homan writes: The final song, Sa Voix M’Atisse, also from his latest album, was sung entirely in French. But he didn’t leave the stage for long. He returned for an encore and began pointing out people in the audience and singing lines about them. “See that girl with the digital camera. I bet she knows how to go on the computer. All right. See the girl with the tattoos. I bet she knows how to grow organic corn. See the guy with the pork pie hat on. He left his camera out on the lawn. But it’s all right". This elicited enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.

Read more on East Portland Blog, great videos and pictures too

December 2011 Tour Dates

USA, West Coast

Fri 2 Dec Olympia WA Olympia Film Society (tix)
Sat 3 Dec Eugene OR Sam Bonds Garage (tix- no info)
Mon 5 Dec San Francisco CA Great American Music Hall (tix) with The Sea and Cake and Lia Ices
Tue 6 Dec Sacramento CA Blue Lamp (tix- no info)
Wed 7 Dec San Francisco CA Great American Music Hall (tix)
Thu 8 Dec Santa Ana CA Galaxy Theatre: The Constellation Room (tix)
Fri 9 Dec Los Angeles CA The Smell (tix only available at door on night of show)
Sat 10 Dec Visalla CA Cellar Door (tix)
Sun 11 Dec Santa Cruz CA The Catalyst Atrium (tix)

Confirm with venue before making travel plans

the door to Bohemia

Bohemia by Jonathan Richman at The Haunt in Ithaca, 24 October 2011, via Armin Heurich

Armin Heurich says Jonathan hasn't been to Ithaca, NY in 19 years. This was the last song of the show.

My parents didn’t stand in my way when I was 16 years old… They knew I had to find, they knew I was pining, for the door to the art world… They knew that I had to find the door — to Bohemia.  I had my pretentious artwork, but my parents didn’t laugh too bad… I needed to be reined in once in a while.  But they didn’t have a hateful vibe, they didn’t demean.  In fact, I’m grateful because they didn’t… stand in my way, when I was — standin’ in Harvard Square, pretentious artwork in my hand.  The New York hipsters saw me standin’ there, and they knew this young man was looking for the door…. To Bohemia.  There I was standin’ in the square, pretentious artwork folio, but they knew I had to find the way…. To Bohemia.


I was bratty.  Bratty… but sincere.  Yes, I was bratty… But I had to know, they knew I had to go.  Pretentious Artwork Folio, it showed me the door, to Bohemia.  High school was night.  But they showed me light.  When they helped me find the door to Bohemia.  Desperate, desperate, hook or crook… I searched for Bohemia in the high school dusty art book.  Faintly, faintly, conjured I — I searched for Bohemia in the darkened Boston sky.  And once they saw that I wouldn’t back down, well they showed me the door to Bohemia.

Bohemia transcript from Moonraking- read Moonraking's account and thoughts of the show at The Bishop in Bloomington last Friday (28 October, 2011), including his reading of the song "Bohemia" here

I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar at The Haunt in Ithaca, 24 October 2011, via Armin Heurich

• shaka tron had a memorable encounter with Jonathan at The Bell House in Brooklyn (22 October, 2011).

• Jonathan helped mop up the place at The Union in Athens, Ohio on 26 October, 2011. 

naked with a stone

Jello Biafra, Jonathan Richman, Mark Kozelek, Chuck Prophet via a2unesgrl

West Memphis Three World Awareness Day 2006 in San Francisco

Jonathan sings at 5:12:

Well when David fought Goliath
There on the valley floor
That gave hope to the underdog
Forevermore
Ooh but David fought Goliath
With a stone

Ooh David fought Goliath
Naked with a stone
Power of the Spirit
Over the bone

King Saul
(What about King Saul?
What was his position on this subject?)
King Saul said you can't fight him
He's a giant, don't you see?

Look, I've already fought a lion
This Goliath just don't scare me

Ooh David fought Goliath with a stone

Ooh David fought Goliath
Naked with a stone
Power to the Spirit over the bone

Awright what did Goliath think about all this?
Goliath laughed at David
What? Have they sent a boy with sling?
Come closer to me youngster
Let the vultures laugh and sing

Ooh but David fought Goliath with a stone

Ooh David fought Goliath
Naked with a stone
Power to the spirit
Over the bone

The West Memphis Three were released 19 August 2011 after 18 years of imprisonment.

Background: West Memphis Three on Wikipedia

Current status and news updates: Free the West Memphis Three

Skeleton Key Art Auction via a2unesgrl

Michale Graves (from the Misfits) sings to a slideshow of Damien Echols' Skeleton Key Art Auction at Minna Gallery in San Francisco; Music by Michale Graves, Lyrics by Damien Echols

Skeleton Key Art

Damien Echols was interviewed on Death Row by telephone about his Zen Buddhism practice by Parabola Magazine in The Justice Issue in Winter 2008:

The days thirty-three-year-old Damien Echols spends alone in a nine-by-twelve-foot concrete cell are not unreal. But how he spends his time is strictly up to him. “You can either turn it into a monastery and or it will turn itself into hell,” he tells me by phone. Intended for terrorists, spies, and other prisoners deemed extremely dangerous, especially those connected to groups, super-maximum prisons keep inmates in isolation and under constant surveillance, and have earned condemnations for inhumanity from a United Nations team and other groups. (read more)

Previously on Jojoblog: Jonathan and Damien

Summer Feeling 1983

via nirta26

Summer Feeling

gravitas and tenderness in Saskatoon

The highlight of the set was a new tune that must have stretched out at least eight minutes, a delightful story-song about how he used to frequent Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts while growing up. Sometimes his parents dropped him off, sometimes he would take the trolley, but regardless the hippies and artsy-types that held a kind of arts-based communion there during the 60s and 70s would always help “Show (him) the door to Bohemia.” It’s remarkably touching, honest, and illuminating; Richman admits to creating some pretentious poetry and also makes it easy to see where his journey to becoming the songwriter he is now and always has been really began. It’s amazing to think it took him this long to write it. To my knowledge it hasn’t been recorded yet and part of me hopes it won’t be. It seems like a song meant for the intimacy of live performance, a real piece of the artist’s soul that couldn’t possibly carry the same gravitas and tenderness it did on this particular Saturday night if it was shackled to tape for eternity.

-- Pat (Sound Salvation Army) read the rest

bright ideas

'They're Not Trying on the Dancefloor' covers another of Richman's over-riding concerns - that people are self-conscious when dancing or watching bands... It's a real pretty song too. 'At Night' is full of the beauty and joy of staying up late on a summer night, complete with thin Hawaiian-inspired guitar and slightly odd turns of phrase ("When the daylight ain't but the planets are/ the door to the arcane is thrust ajar!"). It's one of the absolute best Richman songs out there.

-- Al Brown "Lost Classics: Having a Party with Jonathan" (Soundblab) read more

Thanks keepsakes!

At Night

1983: Jonathan Richman/John Cale Interviewed- Vincent Van Gogh, and other things

via nirta26

1983 Interview with Jonathan Richman and John Cale where Jonathan sings a great version of Vincent Van Gogh in the TV studio. They were on an Australian tour at the time.

I hope everyone has had time now to read through and listen to NuGrape's Song Focus: Affection post (below). If you haven't, please do so when you have a chance, since it will remain on the blog indefinitely. I think it's a wonderful way to listen to a song, to watch it grow and change and yet still somehow retain its essential nature. When you go to a museum and look at a Van Gogh, is the experience more meaningful to you because you know a bit about the work beforehand? Because your understanding has been enriched by background? Well maybe yes and maybe no. There's not really a one size fits all answer to that. Some people just naturally engage with things that speak to them on a personal level- and find it's a pleasure to find others who can relate. And some things take time to mature, like taste, and wine, and friendship, and well.... affection.

Some years ago an attempt was made to start a song club, which began as a discussion on the old mailing list and then migrated over to Jojoblog- the first and only song so far in that song club was 'I'm Straight' (read here).

Here is a video from the mid-80s After Dark show in Australia (where would we be without YouTube? I remember when this blog was first started and we had a discussion about how could we possibly incorporate video which we really really wanted to do but couldn't figure out how? And then as if by magic suddenly there was YouTube). Anyway as far as I know Jonathan only returned to Australia once after this tour- I wonder why?

In more recent news, the current North American tour is going well and I hope some of you will be able to see it. It seems that Fender Stratocaster is back on the setlist and I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar has an added story element. Also phone videos are being discouraged according to this review from Toronto, so please respect that. Don't distress the artist!

Jonathan Richman & Tommy Larkins: Sept-Oct 2011 USA/Canada Tour Dates

Les Gripkey has been mailing out these handy postcards for years and years now, taking over from Dan Scanlan who used to mail them in the olden days from Grass Valley, California. Les Gripkey is also the only authorized official merchandise vendor for Jonathan Richman. If you ever see a merchandise table set up at a Jonathan Richman performance, most likely you will also see Les there!

Take a look at his website and see if you need anything:

Jonathan Richman Merchandise

To get on the snail mail list to find out when Jonathan Richman and Tommy Larkins are coming near your town, send a letter with your neatly printed or typed address to:

JONATHAN RICHMAN
MAILING LIST
PO BOX 8024
SANTA CRUZ CA 95061
USA

September-October 2011 North USA and Canada Tour Dates

Sat 24 Sep Portland OR Aladdin Theater (tix)
Sun 25 Sep Seattle WA Tractor Tavern (tix)
Mon 26 Sep Seattle WA Tractor Tavern (tix)
Tue 27 Sep Vancouver BC Biltmore Cabaret (tix)
Thu 29 Sep Edmonton AB The Starlite Room (tix)
Fri 30 Sep Calgary AB (Broken City tix)

Sat 1 Oct Saskatoon SK The Refinery (tix)
Sun 2 Oct Winnipeg MB The Pyramid Cabaret (tix)
Wed 5 Oct Toronto ON Revival (tix)
Thu 6 Oct Toronto ON Revival (tix)
Fri 7 Oct Ottawa ON Zaphod Beeblebrox (tix)
Sat 8 Oct Montreal QC La Sala Rossa (tix)
Wed 12 Oct Portland ME SPACE Gallery (tix)
Thu 13 Oct Cambridge MA Middle East Upstairs (tix)
Fri 14 Oct Cambridge MA Middle East Upstairs (tix)
Sat 15 Oct Cambridge MA Middle East Upstairs (tix)
Sun 16 Oct Providence RI Firehouse 13 (tix)
Wed 19 Oct Fairfield CT Fairfield Theatre Company on StageOne (tix) with Hilton Valentine
Thu 20 Oct Baltimore MD The Patterson (tix) with Billy Colucci
Fri 21 Oct Brooklyn NY The Bell House (tix)
Sat 22 Oct Brooklyn NY The Bell House (tix)
Mon 24 Oct Ithaca NY The Haunt (tix)
Tue 25 Oct Youngstown OH Cedar's Lounge (tix)
Wed 26 Oct Athens OH The Union (tix- no info)
Thu 27 Oct Columbus OH The Summit (tix)
Fri 28 Oct Bloomington IN The Bishop (tix)

tour 2011 halfway through the year

1978's I'm a Little Airplane!

Happy Summer Solstice dear Jojofans! It's hard to believe the year is half over. I'm posting the earlier tour information here for the archive- next up are 3 shows at the Make-Out Room in San Francisco in July. Be there if you can and tell us all about it!

Tue, Wed, Thu 12-14 July San Francisco Make-Out Room

Remember: Jonathan Richman has no involvement with Jojoblog or with any other internet site.

USA

Mon 7 Feb Albuquerque NM (Launchpad)(tix)
Tue 8 Feb Marfa TX (Marfa Book Company)(tix (call venue)
Wed 9 Feb Austin TX (Hole in the Wall)
Thu 10 Feb Austin TX (Hole in the Wall)
Fri 11 Feb Austin TX (Continental Club)
Sat 12 Feb Austin TX (Continental Club)
Sun 13 Feb Denton TX (Rubber Gloves)
Tue 15 Feb Springfield MO (Outland Ballroom)
Wed 16 Feb St. Louis MO (Off Broadway)(tix)
Thu 17 Feb Huntsville AL (Flying Monkey Arts Center)
Fri 18 Feb Atlanta GA (Highland Inn)(tix)
Sat 19 Feb Atlanta GA (Highland Inn)(tix)
Sun 20 Feb Tallahassee FL (Club Downunder)
Tue 22 Feb Gainesville FL (Common Grounds)(tix)
Wed 23 Feb Savannah GA (The Wormhole)(tix)
Thu 24 Feb Asheville NC (Grey Eagle)(tix)
Fri 25 Feb Chapel Hill NC (Local 506)(tix)
Sat 26 Feb Washington DC (9:30 Club)(tix)
Sun 27 Feb Baltimore MD (The 8X10)(tix)
Tue 01 Mar Philadelphia PA (First Unitarian Church)(tix)
Wed 02 Mar Northampton MA (Pearl Street Downstairs)(tix)
Thu 03 Mar Somerville MA (Somerville Theatre)(tix)
Fri 04 Mar Rochester NY (Bug Jar)(tix)
Sat 05 Mar Buffalo NY (Mohawk Place)
Sun 06 Mar Cleveland OH (Beachland Ballroom)(tix)
Tue 08 Mar Pittsburgh PA (Mr. Small's Theatre)(tix)
Wed 09 Mar Newport KY (Southgate House)(tix)
Thu 10 Mar Ferndale MI (Magic Bag)
Fri 11 Mar Chicago IL (Metro)(tix)
Sun 1 May Salt Lake City UT Kilby Court
Wed 4 May Lincoln NE Knickerbockers
Fri 6 May Minneapolis MN Triple Rock Social Club
Sun 8 May Chicago IL The Hideout
Tues 10 May Indianapolis IN Radio Radio
Wed 11 May Louisville KY Zanzabar
Thu 12 May Louisville KY Zanzabar
Fri 13 May Nashville TN The 5 Spot
Sat 14 May Nashville TN The 5 Spot
Sun 15 May Memphis TN Hi-Tone Cafe

Happy Birthday Jonathan Richman!

Happy birthday to Jonathan Richman, 60 years young today! ♡♡♡ We love you!!!


Jonathan Richman at the Hideout (Chicago, May 8), uploaded by flaiztube