April 28 - the Philharmonic headlines the opening party of the Northampton Music Festival;
no one gets hurt.

April 7, 14, & 21 - the Philharmonic plays the Midway in J. P. on multiple Wednesdays, recording
the last one to insure our place in history as the group that did the most unbalanced version ever of
"Brown Eyed Girl." This last night in particular really cemented out reputation as a band that is
not well; many audience members wounded and bleeding.

On the first one, we try to practice before the gig, but it doesn't work, so we stop.

Despite not bothering to learn them first, we unveil many new songs on this short stay, including
"Village of the Darned", "Can't Think of Anything", and "Sound of Doom" (the latter having been
written by the soon-to-be-legendary Pete LaBonne.) The audience shrugs; I know we're on the right
track.

April 1 - we commemorate April Fool's Day at Liam McGuire's by starting work on "Brown Eyed
Girl;" the woman who requested it leaves right away. I know we're on the right track.

March 17 - Philharmonic celebrates St. Patrick's Day by releasing our all-Irish CD, "Raw Blarney",
in a stunning performance at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, aided and abetted by a galaxy of stars
(Stanley Matis, Alistair Moock, the Mother Brothers, Suzie Lee, Robin Lane, and Asa Brebner.)
Robin and Asa give particularly stunning accounts of themselves, and Dinty plays a devastating fiddle
reel with Suzie and the band, recorded for future generations in our patented Horrend-O-Phonic
stereo process.

March 13 - big-time fun is had at the Sou'wester in Chatham; everyone vows to get together again
in exactly 64 days.

March 6 - we show up at the Mercury Lounge in NYC in a snow storm with only drums, trumpet,
and guitar; enlist local trombonist Bob Funk and longtime friend, guitarist Jon Graboff (poor guy, he
was in the middle of a date -special thanks to understanding girlfriend Carissa); do show (more
special thanks to other longtime friend Jon Pousette-Dart for last-minute loan of acoustic guitar); and
drive back for about 8 hours to Cape Cod, safe in the knowledge that the show has gone on.
 
 
                        AH LOVES SHOW BIDNEZZ !!!
 
 
     Even as we speak, we are about to settle on a title for the Philharmonic's debut release,
                           (not counting "Raw Blarney",
                                    which,
                                as we all know,
                            really shouldn't be counted.)
                          We've got it narrowed down to:
                         "The Sparkling Wonderfulness of..."
                             "Let's Have a Pancake"
                                     or
                        "This is how bears look underwater."
                   so get your votes and suggestions in right away !!!
 
                      Its been horrible talking to you; I'm leaving.
 
 
 

April, '99 -  hey thar fellas 'n' gals...here's the dope on the dopes (Chandler Travis Philharmonic, that is):
 
practically every Wednesday (Wednesdays 7, 14, & 21, anyway) in April at the Midway on Washington St. in Jamaica Plain (also at 9:30) with the Mojo Men, Kukla, Fran, & Ollie; Chicago Bears running back Edgar Bennett, and dead director Joseph Losey;

then
Sunday April 18th at the Boston Playwright's Theater on Commonwealth Ave. in (you guessed it) Boston for a big ol' benefit of some kind and mingling w. theater folk, juggling, people getting shot out of cannons, My Friend Flicka at 11pm

but wait that's not all
then on April 28th we're out in Northampton at the Comic Book Museum -which is also probably on a street of some kind -for the grand(e) opening of the Northampton Music Festival (which may happen sometime around 8pm) with Superman, Fidel Castro, and Princess Lee Radziwell and Her Nearly Performing Pigeons.

Come! Rejoice! Have Joyful and Happy Times!
goodbye.
 

January, '99 -    "Ivan in Paris" is doing fine, thanks...we've had a smattering of good reviews locally (some of which will no doubt be up on the web site soon), and have just started sending it further afield (with a bit of luck, it should be more readily available in the rest of the country by the end of February...)

    The Philharmonic is playing less now that we're no longer doing a regular weekly gig (which is a bit of an experiment, and one that I can't say I'm loving so far. I very much miss the camaraderie of the regular shows, and the weird shit that got invented as a result), but the shows we did do in December were a lot of fun -perhaps even some highlights worth mentioning:

    Toad, Dec. 17 - definitely the swinging ceiling lamps during the big ending. The Toad shows are always a riot, as the damn place is too small for the band, let alone the band and the audience. I also enjoyed the debut of the techno version of "I Want a Puppy", disguised as a Christmas song.

    Johnny D's, Dec. 26 - featured the only performance in '98 of the dreaded Christmas medley, and a rare out-of-costume guest appearance by Hopstep Underpants on Radio Shack wind chimes during our traditional closer, "Bob What's-is-Name". I also took a perverse pleasure in putting no songs from "Ivan" in either of the two long sets (hey, if you want to hear it, you're just gonna have to but it...), plus, was glad to finally get a chance to hear Mr. Airplane Man, who were kind enough to open at short notice (this year, I've got to get organized...); great guitar sound...both Dana (Johnny D's booker/sound man par excellence) and I had colds, and were kind of glad when this one was over and we still weren't dead...

    ...did a couple of fun Casuals jobs in the last week of the year, too, at the Barley Neck the day after Xmas, and at the Governor Bradford in P'town for New Year's...great fun seeing a roomful of familiar faces at the B' Neck, including that of the recently elusive Aaron Spade (now returned to California...Rikki got drunker than I'd seen him in years at the Bradford and did an especially lovely rendition of the "Wang Dang Taffy Apple Tango Mambo Cha Cha Cha"...

    ...that's all for now...cheers!