I was Victim of an Online Attack

Someone or something got access to the back end of this website.

The site never went down.  They didn’t vandalize the posts.  Tell you the truth it was a pretty mellow online attack. Remedied by a little time with the tech support and security team from my web host.

But, they did change my user name and password and I was locked out all of yesterday. I usually feature a new interview every Wednesday but because I have a guest post for Friday and today was pretty much shot on trying to get this thing back up and running I will just have next week feature two.

The Disconcerting Part is How Random It Was

Is there some entity out there that doesn’t like my commentary on cover bands or wants to keep the stories of Brazil’s Emerald mines under wraps? It seems unlikely.

I have already changed the passwords to all the accounts I can think of, but I would be surprised if the person who hacked into this website was in my email or (God forbid) my Twitter.

Anyway, I’m sorry if you missed the site. I can’t promise that this will never happen again, but I can promise vigilance. And by vigilance I mean that if this happens again I promise to call tech support again.

This is a big deal, to me because this is my band.  We’re playing the best venue we have ever been booked at on the biggest night of the week. So, in honor of Hombre headlining the Friday show at the Elbo Room I am gonna feature the story of Tom and I, the first Hombres.

Tom and Casey

Tommy and I have been buddies since we were 12, but we haven’t always been band mates. Tom has always had bands, lessons and drive to play. I saw every incarnation of those bands.  I often tried to write songs and never finished them. Tom wrote hundreds of songs played by a number of bands. I wrote melodies and lyrics without knowing what key they were in or how they would ever get played. While Tom played his songs at school assemblies I sang mine in the shower, where most of them lived and died.

But, every once in a while I would take one of my songs to Tom, and that’s awesome for me. Tom is a top notch guitar player with plenty of his own songs, so when I took him my songs he not only translated my melodies into notes he also wrote hooks and transitions, changed verses and added bridges. He took tunes for humming and made them into playable music.

I always looked forward to taking Tom whatever new songs I had.  Hearing these songs with instrumentation translated them from musical sketches or tunes in my head to real songs. Arranging the songs was more than enough to make me happy for years.

Playing Gigs

Recently we have started picking up enough collaborators to have a proper band.  With a committed drummer and bassist (Amanda and Cool Keith) our band finally has the muscle and sound to gig out.  A rhythm section in a song that always wanted to make you dance but never could is water in the desert. Songs without a rhythm section need an audiences attention songs with a good rhythm section demand it. All of the sudden the songs started to bloom.

We have started playing a smattering of small gigs. Then two weeks Tom used his credibility as a member of Cobalt and the Hired Guns to get us this gig at the Elbo Room.  Its a big enough gig that we called in an extra Amanda to play her horn for us.

So, If you want to see the Hombres play the biggest gig we’ve ever had come out to the Elbo Room Friday the 23rd.  Its a show a decade in the making.

Good Morning this is Casey Brazeal for North and Clark. An interview blog that “holds a microphone to Chicagoans who don’t often make the media spotlight” (Gapers Block). There are new interviews up on the site every week (usually Wednesday) and posts when the mood strikes.  If you’ve never been here before enjoy, if you have think of this like a clip show or Christmas special.

Full Interview

This comes from anthropologist, emerald enthusiast, and my brother Professor Brian Brazeal. The experiences and world Brian talks about in our interview is so distant from anything I have heard about from anyone else — I had to feature some of his audio here.

Full Interview

Peter Chavez got a scholarship to college through Graffiti, that’s not a misprint. He’s a graphic designer now. Peter and I sat down at the Borders on Michigan Avenue and talked about his life for an hour, I could have easily stayed for three.

Full Interview

Finally this is a re-edited version of one of my first interviews with my favorite bouncer Dan Jerez. He’s a big man with a gentle touch, and the dude-bros of Wrigleyville are lucky to have him. Even if he is dragging them out into the street.

The podcast is on itunes, @northandclark is on twitter, and I’m in Chicago. We’ll be in touch.