Pinot Blog

SUPERGOODMUSIC: Pinot - The New L.A. Jam Funk Band To Watch

2011-11-21T12:13:00.000-08:00

SUPERGOODMUSIC: Pinot - The New L.A. Jam Funk Band To Watch: SUPERGOODMUSIC got funked up on some Pinot at the Roxy on Saturday November 5 th , and it proved a perfect reminder of what live music can ...

'American Idol' Contestant -- Doobie Bro Kid

2011-02-14T19:36:00.000-08:00

Check us out playin with Lara Johnston.. on TMZ!!!!!!!!

'American Idol' Contestant -- Doobie Bro Kid

New Live Video!

2010-12-06T23:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a video from our last show at USC:

Dec. 3rd at Tommy's Place USC

2010-11-20T14:07:00.001-08:00

Phi Psi 500 w/ G. Curtis

2010-10-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

Members from Pinot will be backing up G. Curtis at USC's Phi Psi 500 concert on Friday, October 15th. You can get tickets by clicking here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/451251706

Pinot Tour Blog #3

2010-07-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

Whooooa.. so where did I leave off? I can't remember. But one thing is for sure, we've got a lot of catching up to do.

Monday, July 5th

We had three days off in a row so we decided to drive down to New York City and check out what was going on down there. We stayed at my good friend Josh Itano's apartment in the Bronx, NY. After we parked the van, G, Nick, Troy, and I all took the subway down to Manhattan to check out Times Square. I had never been to NYC and neither had Nick, so we were pretty amped to see everything in person.

We bummed around Times Square for a while, grabbed some food, and headed back up to the Bronx to get some sleep for our recording session the next day.

Tuesday, July 6

So, it's 10:00am on Tuesday morning, we were all up until like 3:30am the night before, I'm the bad guy, waking everyone up.. and I start to realize how difficult it is going to be to get everyone and their gear down to the recording studio in Manhattan. We had set up a session for 12 noon at Skyline Studios, recommended by my former teacher, Peter Erskine, and it takes almost an hour to get from the subway station in the Bronx to where we need to go.

I'm thinking "ok, so we need to walk a mile to Fordham University to get the stuff out of the car, then walk a mile to the subway station with cymbals, snare, kick drum petal, a bass.. , then we need to walk from the subway station to the recording studio.. oh S#&*! It's 10:30 already?"

I figured out that there was no way we were going to make it on time so the only option was to get a cab. Josh, my friend who we were staying with, suggested we get a "gypsy" cab because they're more likely to just give you a flat rate that is usually lower than the yellow cabs in NYC. Sounded pretty sketchy to me, the guy didn't have a meter on the dash or anything, no papers.. they all just drive these lincoln town cars and you just ask them "how much"

Anyway, we made it to the studio just in time and got to work immediately. We recorded a bunch of new material that will be released on our next album.

That's all for now.. I will definitely write more later. Right now we are getting ready to go up to Boulder, CO to hand out some fliers on Pearl St. for our show tomorrow night at The Lazy Dog.

Pinot Tour Blog #3

2010-07-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, last time I wrote was back in Appleton, WI. Now we are in upstate New York at Patrick's house.. we have a lot of catching up to do. Here we go!

Friday, June 25th

We drove up to Neenah, WI and stopped at my mom's house for a quick bite to eat, a shower, and then it was off to Red and White for the gig. G, our singer, was kind of surprised at the venue because it isn't really a "venue" at all, mainly just a wine bar and a wine retail shop. So, it's kind of a weird place for us to play, but it always ends up getting crazy in there. It's like, you walk in and think that no one is going to want to hear anything loud, but by the second set, people were moving the tables to the side and opening up the dance floor. It was really fun to see family and friends gettin down.

Saturday, June 26th

We spent most of the day Saturday just resting and recuperating from our time on the road (and some heavy after-show partying!). We headed up to Green Bay for the next gig on the schedule at a bar called IQ's. It was actually my first time ever playing in Green Bay, which is the actually the city I was born in. We played a monster first set (around 2 and a half hours) and came on to do a later set to close out the night. We met a lot of great people up in GB and are already setting up gigs there for the future.

Sunday, June 27th

We had the day off on Sunday and Schroedes was flying back to Green Bay, so Troy and I decided to go over to Krolls, right across from Lambeau Field where the Packers play, to grab some cheeseburgers and a brewski before picking him up. Later on in the day, we had a BBQ over at my neighbor, Alex Moede's house.

Monday, June 28th

Monday wasn't really too exciting.. We drove down to Lafayette, IN to stay over at Troy's house and had a little party/ping pong tournament when we got down there. Troy's mom also had a huge feast of lasagna and spaghetti waiting for us right when we showed up. Definitely some of the best hospitality we've seen so far. We have been joking that the moms on this tour are going to start competing with each other for the best meals/hospitality of the tour. I'm still not sure who's in the lead, we've had some of the best accommodations on this tour so far.

Tuesday, June 29th

On Tuesday we went over to Troy's friend's house and set up our gear for the house party happening later that night. The places was right by Purdue University in West Lafayette. Troy's friend was a swimmer/diver and had a pool in his back yard. Here's a video of him jumping off his roof into the pool (like 4ft deep!).

The house party was fun and we met a lot of cool people who go to Purdue. One of Troy's friends came up to us, apparently he said he name was "Milf"(??).., and he kept on talking about this gift he was wanted to give us when we dropped him off later that night. When we got to his house he ran inside and brought out an American Music Award from 1990. It was Favorite Artist award for Guns and Roses in the Heavy Metal category. LOL.. WHAT?!? I guess he said it was for inspiration.. his uncle was once connected to G&R back in the day. Wow, talk about RANDOM!!

Wednesday, June 30th

The next morning we woke up to another amazing meal prepared by Troy's mom before taking off to Chicago, IL for the next show. When we got to Chi-town, we stopped at Schroedes' roommate's parent's house which was conveniently right near the venue and they treated us to some Chicago deep-dish pizza for dinner. It was G's first time ever eating Chicago deep-dish:

Da Bears.. Da Bulls..

Thursday, July 1st

On Thursday we woke up to yet another breakfast buffet feast at the Kovacs residence in Chicago before taking off for the next show. We headed off to Detroit, MI where we were staying with my old roommate at his parent's house in the suburbs outside the city.

When we got to the venue, the sound guy had pretty much no idea what he was doing, so Troy kind of took over and the guy eventually left. The first band (which was a local group), didn't really bring in any people which was kind of a bummer, but luckily my current roommate, Kyle Rambeau--who actually set up the gig for us, told a bunch of his friends to come out and we had a nice crowd for our 2 sets later in the evening.

Friday, July 2nd

The next day we drove down to Detroit and checked out downtown, then we headed over to Belle Isle and just relaxed by the water overlooking the Detroit skyline. After that, we packed up and headed out towards our next destination: New York!

By 4am we were finally to Buffalo, NY, but no one had any idea of where we were going to stay.. so of course I was the one who had to do the dirty work and find a hotel for us to stay at.. nice planning guys! I'm starting to realize that I can't really leave travel planning up to the band.. oops!! ;)

Saturday, July 3rd

On our way from Buffalo to Albany, we stopped at Niagara Falls to check out the scenery.. and WOW was it beautiful!

After Niagara we continued on to Patrick's house in Niskayuna, NY and stayed the night.

Sunday, July 4th

Happy 4th of July everyone! Just sitting at Patrick's house right now getting ready to head up to Lake George, NY for our show today. It looks like we'll be in New York City tomorrow and will stay until Thursday when we play in Boston at The Middle East Upstairs with the band Biscuits and Gravy.

-Sam

Pinot Tour Blog #2

2010-06-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

On Monday morning we left Lincoln, NE and made it to Minneapolis around 6:00. We had a little basketball match at Schroedes' house and then headed over to IPR for a recording session with our sound engineer, Troy Watson (who also has a blog: http://thetroywatson.wordpress.com) We came up with 2 new tunes in the studio and didn't end up leaving until 5:00am!

The next day we had a show at 'Honey' in Minneapolis which was a last-minute show that was set up by Troy. The venue was in the basement and had a really cool vibe. Here is a video and a link to a facebook video from the show that night:

Facebook Video Link - Click HERE

We had the day off on Wednesday so we took the van in to be fixed and is now running great. After that we went over to John's cousin's place and had a little BBQ session.

On Thursday we drove to Madison for our show at The University of Wisconsin's Union Terrace with The Wood Brothers. We stopped over at Patrick's brother's house in Madison to meet up with guitarist Kelvin Kaspar who will be filling in for Schroeder for the dates he will be missing (John plays with Franky Valli and The Four Seasons if you didn't know..)

Thursday was actually a pretty crazy day for us.. G was supposed to have a flight into Madison, WI at around 3:30pm, but it was Thursday morning and he still didn't have his confirmation email from the person who bought him the ticket. So anyway, he was trying to get a hold of this dude who was in London and finally found out that no one ever booked the ticket for him. He said the only flight he could find was into Milwaukee, WI at 4:30, so I figured that was a little out of the way, but it would work. When G called me back he told me that there was only one ticket left and it had already been booked. SO... he said the only option left was for him to fly into Milwaukee at 9:25pm.

I called my friend Alex Moede who actually helped book the gig at the UW Union Terrace and asked if he could pick him up.. it was like we were in the movie "Get him to the Greek".

So anyway, it came to 11:00pm and we were all set up and ready to go, but G wasn't quite there yet.. so we started with "Alabama Slamma" and G got there towards the end of the tune. We rocked the rest of the show and the crowd had some serious energy. If it wasn't for the strict curfew at the Union Terrace we would have probably played all night, people were chanting for "one more song" over and over again.

Overall, Thursday was probably the most stressful day for me so far with all the setbacks and stuff, but everything came together in the end and we had a great show.

I can't believe we're only on show #4 tonight in Appleton, WI at Red & White. I can't wait to see what each and every show from here on out brings. So far the tour has been amazing, each show the band is sounding tighter and tighter.

That's all for now.. we've got a ton of pics and videos, but haven't been able to upload them or edit any of the video yet. SOON!

-Sam

Pinot interactive tour map

2010-06-25T09:28:00.001-07:00

Pinot Tour blog #1

2010-06-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

The tour has gotten off to a pretty crazy start. We stayed an extra day in Los Angeles to watch the Lakers win the national championships. G and I went downtown that night and got wild in the streets with everyone else. I'll post some pictures and videos soon..

In Las Vegas, we noticed that there was something wrong with the van. We pulled over and called the rental place and it turns out that our "turbo" is failing. So, any time we pull over, we have to restart the vehicle and then it restarts the turbo.

Our first stop was in Beaver, UT to camp for the night. We rolled into this campsite and that's when I realized that I had forgotten an essential item for the tour: my air mattress.. DAMN! I ended up sleeping in the van and everyone else slept outside on the ground without tents. I think they got some bug bites..

On Saturday, we were traveling from Beaver, UT to Denver, CO on the 70 freeway, when out of the corner of my eye I see this motorcycle come up next to us.. we're in the left lane, he's in the right lane.. then he takes both hands off and pulls down his t-shirt. Then, he looks back and puts one hand on his handle bars and turns back to signal to his buddy. The other motorcycle must have been coming too fast up towards his buddy, because all of the sudden, the second motorcycle runs into the back of the lead bike and crashes.. right next to our van, and his bike skids across the highway right in front of us. Patrick was driving and he slammed on the brakes. We pulled off on an exit and called 911. Man, that was a close call!!

So anyway, we just made it to Denver at the last minute for load-in and soundcheck at Quixote's and played a show there. It was pretty crazy, we met this band called Antioquia who we are randomly playing a show with in Chicago at Reggie's Music Joint.

We're in Denver, CO right now, just about to leave for Lincoln, NE. We aren't playing a show there, just staying with a friend. After that, we're driving to Minneapolis, MN for a recording session with our sound engineer, Troy Watson, at IPR.

I'll have another update on here in a couple days and will try to post some pictures and videos when we get to our next stop.

In the meantime, follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/pinot

-Sam

FUNK shirts!

2010-06-07T18:14:00.001-07:00

New live show posted: Live at USC

2010-01-24T22:08:00.000-08:00

New YouTube Video

2009-11-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

"Don't Hold it Back" into Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

Review from Performer Magazine

2009-09-06T00:40:00.000-07:00

Check out the review that Performer Magazine did on our show at The Key Club last month:

Click Here

August 27th @ Saint Rocke - Hermosa Beach, CA

2009-08-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

Can't wait for our show this week in Hermosa Beach, CA at Saint Rocke. The evening starts off with a bunch of comedians followed by a reggae band and then us. Check out the line-up below:

Saint Rocke
142 Pacific Coast Highway
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
www.saintrocke.com
$10 cover

7:30Doors

Comedy Happy Hour:
8pm - 8:10pm - Host (tbd)
8:10 - 8:20 Adam Devine
8:20 - 8:35 Robbie Pickard
8:35 - 8:50 Neal Brennan
8:50 - 9:10 Theo Von

Music:
9:20 - 10:50 International Farmers
11:05 - 12:35 Pinot

DJ:
12:35 - 2am DJ Meegs

New YouTube Videos

2009-08-20T16:24:00.001-07:00

Just posted 2 new videos on YouTube from our show last week with Dumpstaphunk at The Key Club. Check 'em out!

Opening for Dumpstaphunk @ The Key Club

2009-07-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our first tour to find out that we're opening up for Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk again, this time at The Key Club in Hollywood. Also performing will be Eric Krasno's Chapter 2 including Adam Deitch on Drums, Nigel Hall on keys and vocals, and Louis Cato on bass. Last time we opened for Dumpstaphunk the show sold out and was absolutely out of control...can't even imagine what this show is going to be like: bigger venue, another kick-ass band playing on the same bill, better lights, better sound, woooo!! Make sure you get your tickets ahead of time (and not at the door!) because there were tons of people who didn't get into the last show because it sold out. We have pre-sale tickets already, so please make sure you hit us up and let us know how many you need. We're running a special until the end of July...check it out:

::: EARLY BIRD SPECIAL :::

We are offering a limited number of tickets available for $13 a piece ($5 off) until the end of July. Early bird ticket sales end on July 31st at 11:55pm. After that, they are $18 each. Tickets are $22 the day of the show at The Key Club box office ($20 + $2 service charge)

http://pinot.eventbrite.com

*If you don't want to pay the extra fees included with buying tickets online, please email: tickets@pinotfunk.com or call 310-654-3211 to buy directly from the band members of Pinot.

Name your price!

2009-05-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

For a limited time we are offering our new album for download on Bandcamp.com. When you visit the site, you can stream all of the songs on the album and then download single songs or the entire album for however much you feel like paying. Either way, please support us by visiting http://pinot.bandcamp.com

<a href="http://pinot.bandcamp.com/album/09">Alabama Slamma' by Pinot</a>

Pics from Palo Alto

2009-05-12T00:33:00.001-07:00

Shortly after we got to Synergy, there was already a crazy party going on. There were other bands playing, had a couple kegs on ice, and all of the sudden everyone breaks out into a tradition or something where there's a bunch of ribbons tied to the top of a tree or a long pole and each person grabs a ribbon and weaves in and out with the other people. Check out these pictures.

The daytime madness ended right after sunset and we thought that everyone was going to be passed out and not be up for our show. We set up and did a sound check and at about 11:30, a ton of people just started flowing in to the house. Here's the only picture of the sound check before things got crazy.

At the end of the night when we were finished playing, everyone in the room started chanting for another song. Keller wanted to bust out "Ghostbusters" and I urged him to reconsider. Instead we closed with a ridiculous jam of jungle boogie...people were going nuts.

Thanks to everyone up in Palo Alto at the Synergy house. We had a great time and can't wait to be back! The energy at the show on Saturday was like nothing we've ever seen before. Hollerrrrr!
SB

Palo Alto Show

2009-05-10T21:13:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a crazy weekend. Last night's show at Synergy, the Stanford co-op, was out of control! We played from about midnight until 2:30/3:00 and the crowd was getting DOWN! People were dancing like crazy, taking off clothes, partying in their underwear, nude, body paint, etc... It was really cool to see how they throw parties up north and how different the vibe is up there. Can't wait to get back on the road after our LA and Orange County dates. We're looking to add shows in Las Vegas and Boulder, CO too so keep on checking back for more tour dates. And if you haven't picked up a copy of our CD, you can now buy them off our website. Just click on the image of the CD artwork on the main page.

San Francisco Show

2009-05-09T11:13:00.001-07:00

We just finished our first show in San Francisco. We played over at this spot called Ireland's 32 and the crowd was wild!! Everyone was gettin down, drinking, and partyin like crazy. It's such a breath of fresh air to get out of Los Angeles and play some music for different people. We stayed with our friend Jim and Chris and they told us about a really cool sustainability event going on today. Check this out:

Grand Opening of Esperanza Sustainability Center
685 Florida Street between 18th and 19th Streets
San Francisco, CA
Saturday, May 9, 2009 11:00am - 6:00pm

Description:
Come celebrate the Mission District's newest community garden and
center for sustainable living.

Entertainment:
Featuring a bicycle-powered sound system from ROCK THE BIKE
with performances by:
Para La Gente(Latin Hip Hop),
Stitchcraft (Middle Eastern Fusion),
Yaguelin Deyabu,
Rock The Bike's Fossil FOOL,
Aaron Ableman and Aharon.
The Big Tadoo Puppet Crew,
Tracey Tree and other special guests

Workshops & Demonstrations in: urban gardening, composting, greywater
systems, Mycorhyzal life, natural building and more.

Presentation by: Ashel Eldridge from Alliance For Climate Education

Bicycle Powered Smoothies by ROCK THE BIKE
NO THROW AWAYS: bring your own cup, or use our own mugs and wash it
yourself

Wow, San Fran is a really hip place and all of the people we have come across have been way chill. Would like to thank all of our friends that came out last night to support, to Jim and Chris for having us stay at their place, and Beth for having us play over at Ireland's. Off to Palo Alto tonight! San Fran: We'll be back soon!!

New song posted

2009-04-27T13:15:00.001-07:00

Album Release Party!

2009-04-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

Tickets are now on sale for our album release party on Friday, May 1st at The USC Galen Center. You can purchase tickets online by visiting this link:

http://pinotfunk.eventbrite.com

Shows Shows SHOWS!!!

2009-04-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

We just got finished playing 4 shows in the last 3 days and are getting ready for number 5 for this week. Tonight we're playing at The Westwood Brew Co. over by UCLA in Westwood Village. Thanks to everyone who came out to Ramsey's last night for our Hollywood Hills show. What a great crowd and such a nice room! We'll be back for sure! But back to tonight...here are the details:

The Westwood Brew Co
1097 Glendon Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
10:00pm-1:00am
FREE | 21+

Ground Zero Show Tonight

2009-04-09T10:01:00.001-07:00

FREE SHOW!

We'll be playing a special FREE show tonight at USC's Ground Zero to promote for our upcoming album release party on Friday, May 1st. Tickets for the album release party go on sale TONIGHT! Details are listed below!

Pinot
Ground Zero
615 Child's Way
Los Angeles, CA 90089.
FREE | ALL AGES
Pinot set: 10:00-11:00pm

Live Tracks

2009-03-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

New Live Tracks from Gallagher's Huntington Beach - 3/12/09

Here are a few of the live tracks from our show down in Huntington Beach on March 12th. There are links to download the tracks underneath the flash player. If you were at this show, we lost our mailing list, so please add yourself to our list by entering your email in the mailing list box below.
Thanks!

Links to download for free:

Bellyflop
http://www.box.net/shared/8jmxkoj6vf
Funkmeister+
http://www.box.net/shared/dxv2u2os5l
Alabama Slamma
http://www.box.net/shared/g0raa1sr3k

New Tour Dates Added

2009-03-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

-Friday, June 26th in Detroit, MI
Funk Night
-Saturday, July 4th in Neenah, WI
Cranky Pat's

...more dates TBA

Thank You HB!
Thanks to everyone who came out to our show in Huntington Beach last night. I'll be posting the live recording from the show later today. Oh, and if you're on Twitter, hit us up on our page

March update

2009-03-07T15:15:00.000-08:00

So many things to tell you about...let's get started.

Orange County show added!
First off, we are finally making our way back down to Orange County for a much anticipated show in Huntington Beach. It's all goin down next week, Thursday March 12th, at Gallagher's Pub & Grill. It's a FREE show and we'll have the full band featuring Brandon Coleman on keys/vocoder. So if you live around Huntington Beach or in Orange County, you're definitely not going to want to miss this show!

Click around on our new show listings section on the right side of the blog for more details!

Record
we've been working hard on the record and should be posting some studio pictures pretty soon. The record is almost ready to be mixed and we are planning to release it on May 1st.

FU
NK
Launch Party
Speaking of May 1st, we are putting on a huge-ass party for the release and will be featuring some other funk/jam bands from around the area. We will also have a DJ spinning funk and dance music in between sets. The DJ is Dave Cabrera, also known as Mr. Cocoon or DJ Funkenstein. More details will be revealed as the date gets closer. In the meantime get excited for the launch party!

New Blog Features
So we've added a few new things to the blog. There is now a place where you can listen to our music, see our upcoming shows and check out our videos on YouTube.

Cranky Pat's Live Recordings

2008-12-29T20:38:00.000-08:00

Check out the live recordings from our show at Cranky Pat's last night:

Set 2

Cranky Pat's - Set 02 by sambrawner

Set 3

Cranky Pat's - Set 3 by sambrawner

sorry...i'll have set 1 up soon

DOWNLOAD FOR FREE:
http://soundcloud.com/sambrawner

In the Studio

2008-12-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

We just finished the first recording session for our new record coming soon after the new year. When you're working with an engineer like KEITH ARMSTRONG everything is relaxed, organized and nothing less than professional. The studio is owned by Mix LA which is Chris Lord-Alge's mixing studio. They have a few different ANALOG tape machines we were able to use. Look for new recordings on our website and myspace coming in early 2009.

New Pinot video on YouTube

2008-10-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a new video of us playin "Belly Flop" at The Key Club on October 16th opening up for The Original Wailers Band! More to come...

Key Club 7/17/08

2008-07-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a night. We had a few new additions to the band this time around: BRANDON COLEMAN was playing keyboards and vocoder, G CURTIS JR. on vocals, KELVIN KASPAR on lead guitar, and in the horn section we had ROBBY MARSHALL, MIKE BOLGER, and JUSTIN KIRK. First time we have played as a 10 piece band!

Pinot - "Moon Butter feat. Brandon Coleman"

Lettuce - "Break Out" into "Relax"

2008-05-05T22:29:00.000-07:00

Yo what up what up....
just played on KSCR....we'll have the PODCAST up in a few days from that. Thanks to all of you who tuned in and listened. Check out the pics:

We're goin into the studio on FRIDAY MAY 9th and gonna lay some shyt down.
FU
NK

We're playin on SATURDAY MAY 10th at the PASADENA JAZZ INSTITUTUE!
....frickin' JAZZy duuude
NOT

...check it out, it will be funky, fo sho. we don't bring no weak sauce.

Hollerrrrr
pinotfunk.com