Mokracy: News

Be sure and click on PICTURES to see our snapshots from the Saturday show at The Grapevine!

Special thanks to Tiffany Goff for taking these great photos!

Mokracy are very excited to announce the addition of drummer Sam Rhodus and singer/guitarist Don Hicks.

Sam Rhodus’ 25 years of experience have gained him a reputation as a hard hitting, hard rocking drummer. He has powered such regional bands as Devil Stomp, D-Sul, Lithium, Uncle Aleister’s Rock n’ Roll Revival and Valrosa.

He has a reputation for laying down a smooth groove with tasty fills and chops for days that create a big ole fat pocket that everyone can fit in.

Sam’s presence behind the kit ensures a shuffle, a samba and a rockin’ good time.

Don Hicks joins on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, but can also shred with the best of them. Hailing from the town of Bowling Green, KY, and playing since the age of 15, he has studied with David Kelsey, Todd Coop, John Martin and Ben Lacy.

Don's past projects include Cyclin Sam, Powder & Lead, and Devil Stomp.

Chase Gabbard has announced he'll be departing Mokracy in order to devote his attention to his other musical projects. We are very thankful to Chase for his contributions to the band during a difficult transition, and wish him the best of luck with Octalux (http://www.myspace.com/octalux) and The Dead Hours (http://www.myspace.com/thedeadhours). We will, of course, keep him on the "back-up" roster should the need arise.

Mokracy have been scheduled to open for hard rock band Seven Mary Three in August. See "Gigs" for details on the show.

Sorry to announce the South Side Pub show is cancelled. Stay tuned for other events!

Jonathan Newsome (http://www.myspace.com/googlyi) has worked up a great new logo for Mokracy. There's really no great story behind it (like misremembering the name of a town in Georgia) but it's definitely the best logo yet and hopefully this one will stick.

ALSO, new pictures from the Brannon Crossing Sports Pub gig have been posted, so be sure to check those out!

We are very excited to welcome Chase Gabbard (drums) and Ian Goff (bass) to the Mokracy line-up. Both bring a ton of talent and experience to the new evolution of Mokracy as a power trio.

See the band bios page for additional details!

Hey all, I came across some music from Kirsten Snead, an artist I met on the John Mayer message boards (www.johnmayer.com).

Give it a listen!

Hey, I posted an old song from way back in the day called "The Valley" on the Mokracy music page. It was pretty popular with my friends for a while, even though the production quality is the pits.

Anyway, check it out and lemme know what you think, even if you think it sucks!

Hey Mok-Fans,

Christopher recently decided to part ways with Mokracy. Best of luck to him on future endeavors.

-Paul

Mokracy are playing a whopping nine gigs in Lexington during the month of January.

We'll be at Grapevine for New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, then on Fridays, the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th. (They really like us there.)

Also, Medley's has asked us to play two dates: January 3rd and 30th, both Saturdays.

And finally, we're also set to debut at Bar Lexington (the Gumbo Ya Ya room) on Saturday, January 23rd. So get some folks together, come on out for for drinks, dancing and the rockin sounds of MOKRACY!!

Side Note: We had a very successful show at Cosmic Charlie's and have been asked to return. The date is still TBD, so stay tuned!

Mokracy is back at The Grapevine by popular demand for a DOUBLE-HEADER this weekend!

We'll be hitting the stage on Friday AND Saturday night, starting at 9:30 and 10:00 respectively. Full bar, dance floor, good tunes and great times!

Come check out our hi-energy acoustic beat-rock show live on stage!

The Grapevine is at the Tates Creek Shopping Center on the corner of Man O' War and Tates Creek Road. If you are facing the Kroger, Grapevine is about three shops to the right, next to the liquor store.

View Larger Map

Hey everyone! We've been playing a ton of gigs but have managed to find time to launch a YouTube channel. We'll be adding more videos as time goes on, so be sure to head out to:

http://www.youtube.com/mokracy

and click on the yellow "SUBSCRIBE" button to subscribe to our channel. Then, check out our music videos and some of our fans being hilarious.

Thanks!

Mokracy has been asked to return regularly to the Grapevine, following a pair of fantastic shows in October. We'll be playing there most Fridays from 9:30 - 1:30, following the 6-9 opening show.

The Grapevine is located in Lexington at the Tates Creek Center on the corner of Man O' War and Tates Creek. If you're facing the Kroger in that shopping strip, Grapevine is like three doors to the left. If you get to McDonald's, you went to far.

So grab your friends and come out to dance the night away with us!!

Mokracy will be playing a double-header this weekend.

Saturday night we're scheduled for what will probably be our final Saddle Ridge patio show of the year. Show starts at 11 PM and we play till they kick us out.

Sunday at noon we'll be kicking off the entertainment at the Bluegrass Green Expo downtown in the Civic Center. This is a free, family-friendly event, so come on out and rock to the Mok while checking out the displays!

So we're on Twitter now. I've heard of this application for years but never really paid it much mind. Now, everyone and their aunt's uncle's brother's sister's cousin's former roommate is using it, so I didn't want Mokracy to be left out.

I don't really know what it's for or what purpose it serves, but by golly I'm gonna post stuff out there all the time now.

So, head out there and follow us: http://www.twitter.com

Mokracy played Cosmic Charlie's last night as a special guest of the Toni Brown Band from Orlando Florida.

Toni was the owner of Relix magazine for 20 years and chronicled the lives of many musical legends, such as Jerry Garcia and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Onstage, Toni regaled the audience with memories of these rock 'n roll greats of the past, which was really cool to hear.

Even better, Toni and her partner, Ed Munson, spent much of the night off stage hanging out with us, trading jokes, and telling stories over drinks. Aside from being soulful musicians, it turns out they're very cool people as well.

Huge thanks to Toni and Ed, and everyone who came out to Cosmic Charlie's. We'll be back there December 14th, and possibly at some earlier dates.

Saddle Ridge has cancelled the Mokracy show this evening, stating that it will be too cold to open the bar on the Patio. Our apologies to all our fans who were planning to attend.

Remember, we will be at Cosmic Charlie's Monday, so be sure to catch us there!

SADDLE RIDGE

Don't forget to come out tomorrow night to SADDLE RIDGE for the 11:00 Mokracy show! We'll be out on the patio as usual, jamming to your favorite cover songs as well as our Mokracy original tunes.

Saddle Ridge is Lexington's Party Destination, located on Harrodsburg Rd., next door to the Buffalo Wild Wings strip. Click for Map

COSMIC CHARLIE'S

We're also very excited to announce that Mokracy will be taking the stage at the All-New Cosmic Charlie's, this Monday, October 12th, around 10:30 PM!!

Florida touring musicians "The Toni Brown Band" have invited us to take the stage for 30-40 minutes between their sets.

Toni Brown was owner/editor of Relix magazine, a staple publication for Grateful Dead fans, for 20 years. She began touring with members of Grateful Dead the year of Jerry Garcia's death, and has been touring ever since. Mokracy is honored to share the stage with this talented group.

Cosmic Charlie's is located in the old High-Life Lounge building, next to Lynagh's on the corner of Woodland & Euclid. Click for Map

Quick note: I've added a "Paul's Blog" to the site to keep my personal ramblings about band, work, family, etc. out of the band's news feed (good call, Christopher.) It's over on the left, cleverly disguised under "Paul's Blog."

With any luck Christopher will add his own soon, since his life is much more interesting and he's a lot funnier than me.

Anyway, feel free to check out my blog.

That is all.

Alright so we've launched a MySpace page. myspace.com/mokracy. I know that's a tad redundant, but there are many good reasons for having a MySpace page, even though it's not our main website.

So do us a favor, head over to http://www.myspace.com/mokracy and send a friend request, play the songs that are in the player, leave us a comment, yadda yadda yadda... you know the MySpace drill.

Also, Christopher added some more photos of us from the pre-Mokracy days, although it was still us and a lot of the same music, just we have a cooler name now!

We've also made some updates on the bio page, although Christopher hasn't gotten a chance to write his yet. It'll be there soon, so stay tuned!

More later...

We're now booked for at least three shows in October; this Saturday the 10th and Saturday the 24th at Saddle Ridge on the patio, as well as Cosmic Charlie's on December 14th.

 

Okay so I went a little crazy with iPhoto and doctored up some pictures that Zoe took at rehearsal a long time ago. They're in the Photos section (duh.)

Also, I've scattered more YouTube videos across the page here and there, so search around. It's kind of like an Easter Egg hunt.

Lastly, I've added some more links to other websites including MySpace and Facebook links for me and Christopher, a link to our YouTube channel, and links to SDML, Indie Guide, and Hallucinogenics.

I've got a screaming baby to take care of right now, so more later!

Managed to dig up more mp3's from our demo CD off iTunes, which was surprisingly easy to do. We now have "Florida," "Out of Tune" and "Leg" up there.

Then I figured out how to embed our YouTube videos up there, so you can see one of us playing at O'Neill's. I think I put it in the Bio page.

Sign the Guestbook and let us know what you think!

I picked a new template; the tattoo pinup girls are cool, but I thought it was a little over-the-top and got some negative feedback from viewers.

Also, I figured out how to put a logo up at the top, so I just cropped and slapped up a photo of me and Christopher at rehearsal. My daughter Zoe took that one.

More later!

-Paul