nikiandjumbo.com rants

I just wanted to let everyone know that Niki was the sole admin. of this lovely site and that, other than being able to update this news section, I'm unable to do anything else. This includes email. If anyone has sent emails through this site which have not been responded to, it's because I can't receive them. If you'd like to contact me for any reason, you can email through the Niki and Jumbo myspace page (www.myspace.com/nikiandjumbo) or through www.myspace.com/jumbojaksum.

Sorry for any confusion,

Jumbo

I somehow spaced on adding this to this site the other day, must have been the toasts.

Today (Sept. 28) is the day Niki was born.
Please join me in hoisting a beverage (or several) in his honor tonight.
I've already had the pleasure of toasting him with "Niki's Angels" (Lady Dora, Mo and Evil Tina) and singing them a rousing rendition of 'Liquor and Whores' over the phone.
Drink 'em if ya got 'em,

Jumbo

Niki Sparrow (James C. Dunn ) died at 8:15 last night from liver cancer.
He was my best friend, collaborator and main inspiration.
He was always there for me and believed in me and will be deeply missed every day for the rest of my life.
Please keep him, his family and friends in your prayers.
Love,

Jumbo Jaksum (Tim Pemberton)

its been another eternity between updates so i figured 'why not'?
niki and i didn't get together here in nc this year but in recent months we've gotten our recording rigs set up so's we can send files to each other and record like it would be if we were together (minus the party/fun/hangovers)....only different.
thats how we did 'back at the docks' and 'feel good', our newest songs.
i think they turned out pretty decent, so the future of doing shit this way is looking good...
i've got a metric fuck-ton of new songs written and recorded (as has mr. sparrow), so be on the lookout for new tunes soon. we shall deliver the rock. and the other stuff too.
hmmm, what else to report?? oh, i had a nice repeal day celebration last night. 74 years since they got rid of the prohibition bullshit.
right on.
some nice oatmeal stout and cherry vodka/lemonades were involved and i felt like a true patriot. win-win, yo
well, thats about it for this update.
hope everyone enjoys their celebrations this year!
as always, thanks much to everyone who takes the time to come here and listen to our music. we do appreciate it.


jumbo f. jaksum

whoa, this has gotta be the longest time between updates ever. we were both on update strike but it looks like i crossed the shit-line first.where to begin.... well, we had a great time last july. despite some personal bullshit we were both going through, we managed to rise to the occasion and get a lot done as well as have some fun.beer, coco rum, trailer park boys, a pizza the size of a dinner table and many tasty fackin' blueberries. good times and many laughs.ive already got a bunch of new songs started, some done except niki's parts and one instrumental finished.its on my lame ass jumbo jaksum myspace page(http://www.myspace.com/jumbojaksum)
it's called 'jungle fish'. i have no idea what the fuck it means either.
my mang niki has been doing good things for his lungs and voice so he should be at extra top strength(as usual) when we reconvene for the rock. he's also been writing some new music that i cant wait to hear.
im hoping we can bring back more of the weirdness this year but its gonna sound however we feel at the time so i wont sweat it too much and just keep it moving forward as usual. i had a great jam w/ my brother tahred over the weekend and i'm looking forward to more of that.
no promises, but i'm gonna try not to be so slack about updates this year.
alright. i hope you're all feeling good. as always, thanks very much for coming and listening.

jumbo

i'm glad to report that niki is gonna be here in n.c. for a good chunk of july to finish the new tunes.
it'll be great to have him here in the summertime, like it used to be.
the last couple of years he's been here in fall and winter and, while its still lots of fun, we both dig the hot and stinky, sweaty jams that you can only get from summer.
i cant wait to see him and party and lay the goddamn rock down on tape (or hard drive)!
good times to come.
we start recording on the 9th or 10th and, as you can probably tell, i'm about as stoked as it gets.
look for new tunes in a couple of weeks(or less).
thanks to everyone from everywhere who comes and listens every month, we appreciate it much.

jumbo

hi everybody
sorry about the long ass time between updates. it was a long , tough winter for me but at least niki got to come here in november and january and we got to rock. thats what its all about, after all!
spring is here and with it we have a bunch of new songs brewing.
once again, it seems like the new stuff is much more hard rocking but there are some slow and trippy songs mixed in there too.
we finally broke down and started a my space site www.myspace.com/nikiandjumbo its just getting started but there are some tunes up and a video. come add us and we'll be your bestest buddies for life and stuff. we're friendly fellas. anyway, we have a couple of new instrumentals on the site here so check 'em on out.
stay tuned, i plan to try and update more often and let ya in on whats happening in nikiandjumboland.

take care,

jumbo

alright, i have finally have some news for ya.
niki will be arriving here on friday to begin recording the new batch of tunes.
we plan on having much fun first then getting some work done... kinda like we usually do it.
i've been looking forward to this shit for a long time now, should be a blast!
we should have some new songs posted by next week.
cant wait to hang w/ my bromang and make with the rock.
pahty wicked,

jumbo

jeez, i cant believe its already almost october and the last update here was in june! damn. well, there has been alot going on w/ both of us lately. all kinds of weird shit on my end...um.. i didnt mean it like that, you dirty bastards. anyway, w/ all the weirdness, we still havent been able to hook up to record niki's parts on the new tunes. luckily, its looking like we both have a shitload of instrumental songs to tide ya's over so it may be the year of the solo instrumentals w/ some internet collaborations thrown in. who knows? not us! anyway, im gonna send niki a fresh instrumental to post today called 'flight of the dudemang'. hope ya'll enjoy. im also gonna see if i can get him to post his excellent new inst. called 'hells horns'.
more soon,

jumbo

hi
im happy to announce that we have a couple of new songs up on the main page now. the first one is called 'spankhouse' which is named for a new dance we have just finished crafting.if we get enough emails about it we will post an instructional video on how to do 'the spankhouse'. believe me when i tell you its pretty special. the second one is the long-awaited follow-up to the smash hit 'lady lotions' and its called ' lady lubricants'. as soon as i had the basic tracks down it reminded me of 'lotions' so i mentioned maybe doing a sequel type tune to niki and n&j pal dora and dora said 'lady lubes' which got the ball rolling. thanks, dora. then i knew that, as w/ 'lady lotions', i had to come up w/ the dumbest fucking lyrics imaginable and all would be right w/ the world. i think i pretty much succeeded w/ that, hope you guys dig the song. anyway, i've got a bunch more songs started for this summers sessions and im still coming up w/ new ones so...should be fun.
i'll keep ya posted,

jumbo

hellooooo
once again, its been ages since this part has been updated. sorry about that. im glad to say that we have a bunch of new tunes now and will be hooking up again in the next couple of months to make w/ the rock music. its definately gonna be way different this year, judging from how things are sounding so far, lots heavier and maybe more math rockishness and funky. yikes. there will be plenty of spaciness too(as usual), tho, and maybe even a couple of suprises. yowza!
new tune on the site very soon.
its springtime!
enjoy it,

jumbo

hi,

sorry its been so long between updates but there has'nt been alot of niki and jumbo news lately...til now.
i finally got started on the new tracks for what will most likely be the summer '05 sessions. i've got about 10 new tunes started and we have about 5 we didnt get to finish last time we hooked up here at the treehouse. there should be many more in the coming months, if the rock gods are smiling on us. also, we want to make sure we have a few days this time to collaborate on some fresh, spontaneous shit like we did in the old days. only different. im having fun w/ this new guitar synth niki sent me in november.thanks again, senor sparrow. you can hear it on some of the remixed tunes from last year, mostly strings and some piano. we might even have some orchestral n&j for ya this year. you've been warned. oh yeah, i forgot to give credit to jeff eacho for the flute lines on 'walking the cat' and at the end of 'dont blink'. damn fine flutesmanship. thank you, mr. eachodabbamang.
alrighty.
i'll try to keep the updates coming.
til next time,

jumbo

alright. happy birthday(january 15th) to capt. beefheart!!! thanks for the insprirado .happy new year to everyone, i hope we can make it much better than last fucking year.
love and hope,

jumbo

hi,
it looks like we had some ill communicado on the remixed tunes, the list on the page isnt accurate.until niki gets time to fix it(hopefully soon but hes been a busy lad lately) , heres the list of songs that actually were remixed:

rub my butt
lady lotions
return to zero
trailer park girl
regenerate
sorry
dont blink
unstuck
gimme

sorry if anyone dl'ed any of the other tunes on that list thinking they would hear something new

jumbo

hi
time for a new update since its been ages. niki just uploaded a new song called 'chump change' . we totally spaced on uploading it to the site before the..uh..elections. (un)lucky for us, though, there still is MUCH need for a chump change so we went ahead and put it on the site. for more on our feelings about that wacky shit, i refer you to a tender lil ditty we did last year called 'these fucks'.its in the mp3 folder.
in other news, im still mixing the last couple tunes from the september sessions and starting some new ones. i should have a new one on the site by tomorrow, if not later on today. woot. also, these tunes are the last w/ the drum machine. we're poundin' out our beats w/ our bare mittens on a roland handsonic perc. kit and looping them ourselves so the human element will now be all up in the beats and thats a fine thing!
well, thats it for now.
take care and dont give up hope,

jumbo

new tunes are now up on the site and in the mp3 folder.

enjoy,

jumbo

i just wanted to remind everyone that today is niki's birthday & to write the lad a happy bday email. he's a sensitive artist and they dig that kinda stuff. happy day, niki!!!

and many more,

jum

hi again. we wrapped up everything yesterday. niki was kind enough to leave me w/ some nice musical tools to work with 'til next time.thanks again, brother nik. it sure was a short visit but, as i said the other day, we got lots done in that time and had a great time doing it. the new tunes should start showing up on the site in the next few days, so be on the look-out for some new n&j poop soon.

el jumbo

well, day 2 was a trip too. i typed it all out earlier but sure enough, i fucked up and erased it, so ....sure hate when that happens! anyway, it was great to see and rock w/ niki. once again, he delivered the goods and kept me smiling. thats the best anyone can hope for in music.that, and a fine sense of melody. good times, good times.
we got lots of work done while laughing our heads off, so we got that mission accomplished!
we got together around 2:30 pm eastern. we did like 8 tunes then at 5 went shopping and got some fine chowables and chowed. i hope we have more time together next time because its really going fast this weekend.anyway, im hoping my hangover in the morning is way less severe than todays was. niki is no longer drinking so im drinking for 2 now. i feel like an expectant mom or something. only different. very different.
one love and one million loves,

jumbo

well, the time is just about here. niki should be here in roughly 48 hours to fulfill our rock destiny. its been a year and 2 months since last time we hooked up so im extra stoked about it. its about time i got to see my bromang nikster. he's gonna have a bunch of other stuff going on this trip, so we might not get as many tunes done as usual but im gonna work him as fuckin hard as possible in the time we have, rest assured, but only after much fun is had. i cant wait to hear where he's gonna take these new tunes, should be a trip. the new studio dealio is coming along nicely now after a slooow start. there are lots of options in the digital world but one thing we intend to keep doing old school is laying down tracks. i still believe that if ya cant play a song all the way through you're probably not ready for recording in the first place. let it fly, warts and all. yep yep.
well, i'll keep ya posted on the recordings as they happen so expect me to post more frequently than usual.
see ya soon,

jumbo (tim)

time for some good news!
the nikmang and i have been scopin' this roland digital multi-track workstation thingamabob for a few months and droolin bigtime. well, about a week ago he called and told me he was gonna go ahead and snag one. then he proceeded to tell me he was having it shipped to yours truly! whoa! talk about cream dream supreme! it arrived here at the treehouse yesterday and i've been dickin w/ it ever since. a fine piece o' machinery, yes indeed. ya'll can get a load of it here : http://www.rolandus.com/products/details.asp?catid=12&subcatid=48&prodid=VS%2D2000CD
so, in september when we resume the rocking, we will be sportin 18 digital tracks instead of the 8 analog (cassette) ones we've been working with for the last 4 years ( it was a 4-track cassette we used for the 1996 - 2000 tunes).needless to say, its gonna be a big sonic improvement. i've already started moving the new tunes over to it so we can rock with new and improved girth & might. yepper.
okay, thats it for this update.

take care til next time

jumbo

ahh yes, what niki said. damn, i cant believe its taken this long for me to get around to updating this news dealy! sorry about that, folks. theres a new instrumental up now called 'springtime will come'. its one that i wrote last fall and winter while thinking of my friend kicki in sweden who has cancer(i started it before we found out my pop had it too, and i also thought of him alot when finishing up this tune. hes doing much better now). its a 'getting thru the rough shit so things can be better' type of song.shes been fighting hard for a long time so please send your healing vibes her & ozcar (her husband mang)'s way. thanky much. also, check out her tom waits site called angora shoes at http://www.kicoz.nu/tom_waits/ . in other news, there are lots of new tunes in the works right now, the batch just keeps getting bigger & bigger. hot dawggie,we might even have some good ones for ya! im looking forward to hooking up w/ niki so's we can have us a barrell fulla fun & put the finishing touches on a bunch of 'em. its now looking like september before we can do that or maybe sooner but we'll definately have more tunes up before then, be it instrumentals or some stuff we can ftp back and forth.yessiree.anyways, i hope everyone is having a fun summer and getting in as much trouble as possible....holy shit, my cat just blew chunks on my barong , this shirt that i thought was just a blue hawaii type deal but turns out to be formal wear in the phillipines. far out, huh? i hope it survives the spew cuz it sure kicks a boatload of ass.
anyway, back to the bye byes for now.
lovin ya from here,

jumbo

bring it on big world
all the hot, sticky, muck and topped with groove
summer yourself well, don't forget to think
shake hard, play loudly
kiss miss behave
fresh cherry
that's what's good today

hi,
once again its been a long time since i posted here.happy spring and stuff. well, we're currently still working on a date when niki and his glove of love can get up here (n.c.) from tx. to fulfill the rock quest and work on new food and alcohol combo's thus far unchartered by mang. we now have like 40 new songs(instruments done) and i just started some more, so the longer it takes to hook up, the more shit we will have to choose from, but i guess thats always good. this time around, though, im definately not drinking any booze that will add flecks of gold to my turds. they're precious enough on their own.. yep. hopefully we can do all this fascinating stuff in the early part of summer. i got some new gear to make the mics sound a bit warmer and add some compression. hot diggity. in the meantime, there will be some new instrumentals posted very soon. lately, there have been some questions about how the vids are made and i talked to niki about this the other night and he said 'macromedia flash' and i asked 'anything else?' he says 'nope, thats pretty much it'. so there ya have it, folks, we finally broke down and got all techy on ya!
alrighty. be sure to check out matt varga's fine tunes and playing here : http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/mattvargamusic.htm
you'll be glad ya did.
in other news, i saw the first fireflies of the season tonight! they are always a trip to behold and they always make me feel lucky to be seeing them.
right on.

jumbo

hi and howdy. its been awhile between updates and rants so i thought id post something tonight. the new tracks are coming along nicely and getting fattened up w/ more stinky sounds for your earholes 'n such. we aims to please, folks. me and niki have been on the phone a lot lately coming up w/ kickass ideas that i promptly forget after too many beers. doh. maybe niki remembers some of them tho. in addition to being a gifted rock god, hes also a damn fine citizen w/ a great memory to boot. on the health front, my back is much better now. alot better than its been in a long time (thanks to the healing magic of massage therapy from jeff golden, a totally righteous mang indeed). thanks jg.the breakdancing and water-ballet is no longer a problem, whew. close fucking call. i get so many emails asking "so, jumbo mang, what music have you been listening lately?" so i'd better address this shit before it gets waaaay outta hand. as always for a long while ive been rocking _ the causey way_ and a band that ane diaz has w/ rain phoenix (who were known as truth causey & reign causey in the causey way) called _producto_. check out both these fine bands at all costs. the causeys are on alternative tentacles and producto is on furlined records. other than a steady diet of them it been some fela kuti,mars volta, junior kimbrough, friends of dean martinez, curtis mayfield, apples in stereo,ween, funkadelic & root boy slim.
well, thats it for this go 'round.
i hope youre all happy and healthy.


jumbo

hi everybody. happy valentines day, lubbahs! not too much to report except that i fecked up my back (bigtime) yet again 2 weeks ago from when i was shoveling ice. its been a slow time healing up but i can at least record some tracks again now that i can sit for more than 5 min. at a time. wooot. not to worry though, i'll be back to the kung-fu, jazzercise, water ballet and break-dancing in no time. yesirreee, you betcha. last night i partied w/ pg of the niki and jumbo chart-buster 'ode to pg garner'.as usual, we ate and drank our weight in stout and habanero cheese, along w/ creating many weird ass food combinations that we will never remember. i'm payin' the price today but it was worth it .ol' pg must have asked me 10 times when niki was gonna be here this year to which i could only answer "damned if you and me know, mang. hopefully springtime".anyway,we're gonna have lots of new tunes w/ many new sounds for this years offering. should be fun. thats what its all about right? i'll keep ya posted.
peace, love and refreshments,

jumbo

howdy. long time no rant. ive been stuck in the treehouse for pert near 6 days now due to the ice/snow storm shizzle that started sunday. this has been good for the music and bad for the sanity. i was able to trek out w/ me bro-in-law tim scranton (who out-fitted me w/ a big ol backpack and one of them ski-stick thingies which saved me from many an assbuster) on tuesday to get beer and habanero cheese and peanuts, the essentials of life. thanks, brother tim. well, the new tunes just keep a' comin', ive got like somewhere between 30 and 40 started so far. its gonna be extra cool this year because there will be a minimum of shitty drum machine beats and a maximum of tasty loopage of real deal drums and also a heapin' helping of niki blowin' the shit out on the his new handsonic kit. also, i plan to get more involved w/ the singing and get niki more into playing so we can mix it up a bit.put the flip-flop on ya. we aim to rock w/ might and purpose. cream shall be acheived, we will accept nothing less. yep. anyways, i hope all you fine folks are staying warm and cozy. see ya soon,

jumbo

grEEts and such
meRRy gRumbles and haPPy new BeaRd

niki the sailor boy here back from a fun in the sun run
with gypsie queen down flordia way

a fellow i've known for a pretty long while now finally got around to listening to some of our stuff
he asked me "what exactly is it you do again ?"
so's i told him mostly vocals and lyrics
so's he tells me
"damn the music is real good. i really like that instrumental number country spy "
hehehehe . that's the way it goes eh
so i've uploaded a bunch of our instrumental numbers for like minded folk . enjoy
the flute and horn work is mr. jeff eacho . fine work there jeff
( he'll prob never see this, kinda got busy with that matrix shit )
all else is pretty much 100 percent jumbo
think my faves are country spy and rainbow tugboat
ya'll tune in and get some on ya.


love and of course
HUGS aLL aRouNd
n.s.

ahhh. another holiday, another jumbo rant. im diggin the oldies idea, maybe we should switch 'em out for some other old tunes every couple days and make it 'oldies month'... and speaking of the old tunes, the one called 'jonestown fishfry is by a band that niki and i were in together in '95-'96 called Bonanza Jellybean. we had my twin brother tahred(todd pemberton) on bass, jeff eacho on sax and flute and, the undefeated king of drums, michael elwood olds.hot freakin diggity!!! also, any of the early niki and jumbo stuff ya hear horns or flute on is eacho. ok, credit where due done did. in other news, ive been starting the next batch of niki and jumbo fun for you fine folks the last couple months. im up to about 13 new ones and counting,we should have the usual 50 by spring time. niki's been hard at work mastering the handsonic drums and writing tunes & getting prepared for our next rocking shindig. i cant wait.

love & safe and happy holidays to everyone,

jumbo

ps., thanks to all who have sent well wishes and good vibes to my pop in the hospital, it means alot

greets . well met . happy .

hope this oldies week works out .. figure it's a chance for some to fill in their backlog of tunes they may not have got to download and new folks a chance to hear some of our older crap, uh i mean gems . gRin.

ok, i'm gonna plug another band .. the Weakerthans .. it's been a long long time since i've enjoyed a new musical discovery.
( new for me there on their 3rd release )
you can download a couple freebies from 'em here
http://www.epitaph.com/bands/index.php?id=321

I just got on to 'em yesterday and had to tear up Dallas to find a copy of their latest cd, Reconstruction Site for myself.
did so . oH yEa ... and it's A L L G O O D .
Don't miss "Plea From A Cat Named Virtute"

love and hugs all around
n.s.

right on,mang. thanks for hookin us up w/ this new blog dealy. now i can post rants about senseless shit late at night when im hammered. yippee, cream dream! we should have some new tunes and vids for you'se peoples soon. thanks for all the emails of encouragement and requests for niki and jumbo lunchboxes . we're workin on it.
happy chowdown day!

jumbo

just found this recently ... worth a see if you haven't
niki

oh jeez, slow newsday. surrender dorothy .. uh .. i mean mr. jackson