Mo Phillips: News

Here we are friends, peak Portland summer, and all is well. I have been dipping into kiddie rock, playing family venues and whatnot, and working on a kids album tentatively titled, "Pizza In A Cup". We gotta great home now, though I have done a most half-assed job on the re-making of the bathroom. I digress.... Shows forthwith, if you are so inclined. Oh, and the Aussie album is being mastered (still), but should come out by the end of summer. Lotsa love.

It is official friends, the Phillips family is headed back to Portland! We've bought some tickets and we are on our way. We'll be landing in P-town in mid February. While we were down here we got us another kid and a cat, and we're bringing them back with us!

As for tunage, I am currently trying to put something together for March. I'll of course let all ya'll know, so we can get down and you can hear what Queensland does to a man's music.

So Much Love to ya'!

...In a dream world friends, in a friggin' dream. Life is swell as I battle the rages of dirty nappies and mountains of dishes. I have taken the up the mantle of homemaker, as the wife is infinately more employable than I and has far more earning power. So I am now hanging out with Owen and writing heaps. A good thing, on all accounts. I have been very busy with my new home record label -- Hey! Bacon!!-- we have a couple of fantastic artists already on the roster. You will be hearing more from them soon. If you navigate your way to the Links page you can find Slut Stack, one of our artists. So please, indulge.

We love all of you monkeys! And someday soon the live show that is me playing songs that I have written will be back, and we will rejoice!

Hey there friends! So you may or may not know that our boy Owen was born with cleft lip. Sometimes a cleft lip is acoompanied by a cleft palate, but not in O's case. Just a lip. Well, on the 9th of Jan. Owen had successful surgery to fix it up. He is home now and doing great and the docs did a bang up job. He is THE TOUGHEST! A WALKING RAZOR! His first three months have been relativley wild and he remains the chillest, most zen lil' dude in history! Give thanks and praises ya'll.

I seriously will be releasing the music of the last couple of years; I have been delaying if only to feel like I am releasing a highly anticipated major label record. Work on the new album is good, but slow as dadhood takes precedent right about now. Many blessings earthlings!

Hey Friends,

Just yesterday I read that Chris Cornell of Audioslave and Soundgarden fame apparently does MY version of Billie Jean, and may release it on a solo album next year. That's right friends, as many of you may well know, as you have heard it live, I have being doing Billie Jean as a country lament FOR YEARS. So while I am happy that Mr. Cornell has stumbled upon this gem is the dusty cliff face of the cultural wasteland, let it be said, let it be known, that Mo Phillips polished that gem first, and only for lack of FAME and FORTUNE have I not bestowed it upon the wolrd. Good Luck Mr. Cornell, but know that there are people out there who will say, "Oh, well, that's been done big fella."

Other than that much love to all from this petulant man-child!

Apologies for the long absence.... I am putting together a CD of the best of the recordings I have done over the last couple of years and should have it on CD Baby by Christmas. It won't be as polished as The Boat, but has some great selections. It is also in anticipation of the home studio I am building that is going to see the creation of some fantastic stuff. Please keep in touch...

The Boys are doing great as is the wife, thanks for all the love everyone has been sending.

Many blessings ya'll!

Wow! Okay, Bogota clearly has the reputation it does owing to the fact that they do not want anyone to come ruin their kick-ass city! An amazing adventure was had. My brother's wedding was tremendous; it was really a three day festival filled to the brim with the local fire water - aguar diente! Food, dance, the whole bit. Tremendous. I am officially a fan of Colombia. Hopefully my brother and his amazing Colombian bride, who has been an aunt to Henry from his first day, will figure a way to set up down there for part of the year, so we can visit! Oh, and our family has just quadrupled in size! I have panamanian cousins! And aunts and uncles! Henry now has a Colombian great-grandma, get down with that! Much love to my new brothers Ricardo and Alejo. See ya' soon fellas.

Back in Brisbane and gearing up for some good shows. If you are here in Brisbane please check the calender and come on down.

Much love you monkeys!

Hellllllooooooooooooo!!!!! I am leaving for Bogota, Colombia in the morning for my brother's wedding! And I have been neglecting you! Apologies! Things are smooth Down Unda. I have been diligently plugging away at the covers scene and bringing in a bit o' scratch.

More importantly, I have signed on as a second guitar man with this fella Phil Smith. He writes some great tunes and it is a swell challenge for me to try and bust some tasteful lead over another fella's stuff.

I have also just booked a show at a very cool joint called The Troubadour which I am quite excited about. It is a lovely little spot with killer sound and a great music listening audience. So I'm real happy about it.

I am really bumbed that Kate and Henry have to stay behind while I traipse off to Bogota; it isn't fair to them and I'm gonna miss 'em like mad. We are also severly bummed that we are missing La Boda de Kris and Kaja. We love you guys and got all kinds of tears, but you know that. Lotsa love to Peppa and Bobby Nahurski too!

Rock till you drop kiddos! I'll try and rotate some new tune onto myspace. If you havn't seen that go www.myspace.com/mophillips.
Okay children, Jah loves you, and so do I....

Hey folks, I love all ya'll, you know I do. I'm just a bit of a monkey with not much to report. Except some new shows. So if you are in Brisbane, check the calender and come see some cool shows at the Tongue and Groove and Ric's. P-towners, yes! Hello! Love you! See you... someday.

I would firstly like to thank Crum and Double A for getting together the web cam technolygy for this past weekends Easter Oly Hunt. It was an honor and a pleasure to be a part (albeit removed and ever so brief) of the 10th Annual Easter Oly Hunt. It was really wonderful to see a bunch of our Portland friends. We miss you guys a great deal. Much love to you P-Town!

Things around here are taking new shape. I have left preschool for the considerably less emotionally and mentally taxing arena of law document delivery for my day job. It is a swell job that entails walking around downtown Brisbane and not much else. Which is really good because the music is starting to happen much more!

Man, the Aussie covers scene. Gotta love it. Mo Trio is doing a two night stand in Kingaroy this weekend and getting put up in the hotel. We are starting to sound pretty good. I've got me a brothers rhythm section who are tight and fun and as they say in Australia -- keen. It has been a lot of fun putting this project together and we are starting to pile on cover and originals gigs. So that is pretty sweet.

On the home front, we took our cat Elliott into the vet today to lop off his misters only to find that there were no misters cause Elliott is a she! Whoops!!! Well, the surgery went fine any way (they just performed the lady kind) and Kate and I are waffling between just pretending Elliott is still a boy or giving her her womanly due. No matter what we are still calling the cat Elliott. Please advise in the guestbook if you think there are potential psychological implications (for anyone) in the matter....

Herny started a new kindy today and was a superstar. He really digs school and we are pretty happy about that. The kid is just so freakin' cool. He's is just about as smart as they come. He had no problem with Elliott turning out to be a girl, for the record. He was quite nonchalant about the whole situation, but showed a real understanding of the difference. So you needn't worry about any psychological implications for him.

Okay lovelies, off to Kingaroy tomorrow to wow them with our bastardized version of the Scissor Sisters bastardized version of Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out". It is HOT!

Yes friends it has finally happened, my first true show in Australia. Last week I played a solo four hour covers show (on two hours notice) in Springwood which for you Portland folk was like playing at an OTB in Gresham, and for you Denver folk is like playing at bingo parlour in Aurora. Needless to say they were not happy with my rendition of Can't Help Falling In Love With You (one old wasted dude actually shook his head and said "shit". It was awsome!)

But that show does not count. THIS WEEKEND, ALL ORIGINALS, ALL NIGHT!!! I have thrown together my band, we are called, for lack of any real ingenuity, Mo Trio, and dag nabbit we sound pretty good. Bass player Chris is a young buck who was ready to go out and make some money playing covers but has had to be thrown into Mo's firey dungeon of hell. We went through 18 (18!) songs on Sunday. We've got a hired gun named Pat on drums and he is totally solid. The kinda guy you can yell 'half-time' at and he doesn't miss a beat (except the one's he's supposed to!) So we are pretty psyched to be playing The Pavillion on Saturday. It is in the West End, which is like Hawthorne/Belmont in P-town. We will be recording it so hopefull I can post some of it here or on myspace in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned. Much love to the global Monkeys. A big shout to Shiggedy in Mumbai and Raj running his spa in Poland. Damn boys. And to Charlie O, who went to India alone, and who must currently be experiencing what some of us like to call Dal Faucet. So much love.

HERE COMES EASTER!!!If you are in Portland make sure Crum gets a web cam so I can be at the party! Dig! YOLY!!!!!!!!

Now ya'll know I love you. You know how deep my love runs. I am the Marrianna Trench of love. This alone should suffice in place of updated websites. However, I know that the world does not work that way, and while you may feel my love, that does not mean you can intuit all that happens down here. After many complaints about my lack of attention, I am here to say that I love you all, and here is the update....

I tried out to be singer and rhythm guitar dude for a band, and while we had a good time, they were really into KISS and Tool and wanted to go in that direction and clearly noted that I am not that dude. I also played with some old boys who were a lot of fun but too stoned even for me. That however, was quite a jam! We really did have a good time.

My friend David Gillette told me about ten years ago that I should be playing a Fender Telecaster. Ten years ago I didn't really know what that meant. But having bought one just before we moved Down Unda, I now am convinced that had I taken his advice ten years ago, my personal assistant would be writing this blog as I sunned myself on a Fijian beach in anticipation of my Japanese tour. The Tele is in fact what I was meant to play this entire time. Thanks David.

So down here I've got two guitar students who are into writing, which is really exciting. We are having a great time. One of them is really into soloing, so I taught him the major scale and the blues scale and we are going to town! It is very rewarding.

Henry has taken a real shine to his baby grand piano and likes to drag it into the lounge room for concerts. He also is absolutely in love with our cat Eliott, who takes more abuse and loves it than any pet I have ever known. The two of them can destroy Henry's room in a matter of minutes. Seriously, Henry dumps out the blocks and then Eliott swats them around the room. If cats could laugh, Eliott would have to laugh like hell the bad influence he is on Henry. They are friggin trouble!

Kate is doing well and enjoying her work. She is really enjoying our couch. Did you all know that Kate might be lazier than me? I know, not possible. And actually, she does an assload to keep us alive. But we wouldn't be us if we didn't talk shit about each other to the world. I sure do love the lass.

Um, oh yes, MEAT AUCTION!!! At Bernie's Discount Butcher at the Cannon Hill Plaza, every Saturday at 4pm is the meat auction. The butcher slams a tray on the counter and the first person to slap thier $20 down gets the tray. He then loads the tray up with all kinds of meat that is clearly woth more than $20 and slides it down to the girl who bags it. It is a friggin' frenzy. Lots of pushing, a bit of shit talking, and assloads of meat. We made off with a lamb roast, 6 lamb cutlets, 2 kilos of mince, chicken wings, chicken sausage, flank steak, and some more meat. UNREAL! We love Bernie, he is our meaty friend....

I got an agent and should be doing cover gigs in a couple of months. That is one of the swell things about this cover scene down here, there is money to be made.

Henry and I are sick. We didn't go to school today. He really wants an ice block (popscicle).

Get ye to skype.com or set up yahoo messanger so you can view our down unda shennanigans on our webcam! Let us know when you want to chat and we'll do it! We miss all ya'll and love ya's. And if you don't know us personally and stumbled on this website to hear some music or something, well, we love you too.

All the best my sweets!

Yes friends, one step from the big game and our Broncos have been dispatched most effortlessly by those Steelers from Pittsburg. Much love to Joey and Kevy Pooh, go get 'em fellas.

That said, I can now concentrate on music again. I have finally been able to upload some new tunes on the site, so please go listen, download, whatever you like, if you haven't heard them.

I have guitar lessons today, and one of my students is a prog metal madman. He shreds, but I've got a couple tricks I think I can teach the 15 year old phenom.

I am driving a fully legal vehicle for the first time in eons. Kate is elated! Yeah, all is well round here, we're doing our best.

I'm playing on Wednesday at the Manly Hotel. I'll tell ya' how it goes.

All the best sweet peas...

The electrical storm in this part of the world last night was something to behold. Two hours plus of constant illumination, and I mean constant. Unbelievable.

Yesterday a 4 year old say to me, "Mr. Morgan, I'm bursting!" I said, "come again?" And then she grabbed her lady business and I said," Oh! By all means Georgia, you may go to the toilet!"

The reason we hear about kookaburas outside of Australia is not because of the name: these birds think they are monkeys. While parrots can do a fair job imitating humans, they have nothing on the kookabura's monkey call.

There is mad graffitti in Brisbane, and lots of it is incredible. Gather all your Aussie stereotypes and fit that one in champs!

Henry enjoys falling from great heights. He should have a broken bone before the year is out, and laugh all the way to the hospital.

All the best my loves....

Okay I suck. Now...

SO DOES BRISBANE TRANSPORT!!! Holy shit! Ten minutes by car, an hour and a half bus, or train, or bus and train!!

MEAT PIES! YUM! YUM! You don't even know America.

Open mics are open mics the world over. Completely without pretension; totally shoddy affairs. I love them!

Two scenes in Australia. Covers and originals. When you're small time, all the money is in covers. So... building the song book. Suggestions?

Did I mention MEAT PIES!?!

Henry is having a swell time. He enjoys school again, and the bath (cause its friggin' hot).

Kate is in heat heaven. And she got a swell job selling overseas programs to highschool kids.

I'm preschooling and teaching guitar and piano.

Its gonna be 90 degrees on Christmas. Um, yeah....

No tacos yet my sweets, but we are young yet, and still captain our own dreams....

Apolgies for the supreme lack of update, things have been hectic, and frankly, when I have a free moment on the computer, you know I'm checking on the Broncos (who kick ass by the way).

I got a job in the first 5 days, making italian food at a joint called Tommy De's, owned by a fella from NYC. Kate got herself a job too, and we were up in Brisbane today looking at houses. Henry walked up to this one we were looking at and said, "cool house." Uh, yea, I know, he's a big two year old.

Our stuff gets here at the end of the month and then we will be able to load up pictures, m'kay. We love all of you, the world over....

Hello All! We have made it safely to the Gold Coast. It is lovely here, albeit a bit on the hot end (Kate is in HEAVEN!) Henry has no idea when to sleep, which is mainly just heartbreaking. But he is having a good time nontheless and already has a major crush on his older cousin Casey. We enrolled him in a child care place this morning because quite frankley he is sick of us and our adult shenanigans. (NO MORE BANKS AND HEALTH CARE AND JUNK!!!) Anyway, he was asleep during the tour of the center, but we think he is gonna love it! HA! It is Melbourne Cup day, an unofficial national holiday, so Mo is headed to the track to place a box trifecta on some ponies! All the best lovelies....

Oh, and happy Halloween to ya'll, that was yesterday for us (and let me tell that the 4 trick or treaters we had were pre-teens and their costumes were LAME!)

Well friends, we have been having a swell time here in Denver. Henry has particularly enjoyed the sharp increase in after dinner sweets at his Grandfolks house. His uncle Thaddeus and auntie Tatiana arrived last night and he is almost as happy as Kate and I are to see them.

I went to see The Decemberists with our good friends Connie and Bridge and let it be said that they put on a helluva show. I mean really a lot of fun. And solid.

This will probably be the last note before we arrive Down Under. I hope the three of you reading this all sigh in wonder and joy! Much love.....

So we have made it to Denver. Last Thursday a big ol' truck with a big ol' container came to our house and loaded up all our junk for shipping to Australia. It'll get there in about six weeks. We'll be there in two!

Denver of course is beautiful. 80 degrees and a brilliant sky. Henry is pretty happy to be at "Papa's house". He seems to be making the transglobal transisition better than we are! More to come...