Welcome to the Rockin' Ammonia Karaoke blog. I am Jon Mitchell, owner & operator of Rockin' Ammonia Karaoke. I started the company in July of 2008 because I love singing karaoke, but I hate having to sit through a lot of Hip Hop, modern Top 40, and Nashville Pop(also known as Modern Country) just so I can sing a few kick ass Rock-N-Roll tunes. So I decided to be the boss, and try to revolutionize karaoke for the die-hard rockers who have probably stayed away from karaoke places for the exact same reasons. My book contains only the best selections available from what is out there. I've had a number of regular places in the Triangle area over these last 4 years, at which I have had various levels of success, but it's mostly been bad. So, I decided to start a blog to report the details of the night so people can see what they missed and maybe they'll come check it out. So, I just finished my 3rd week at Tres Amigos Mexican Restaurant, located at 109 W. Main St. in Carrboro. It's been a slow start, but tonight was the best turn out so far. So here's the details. I started off the night with Joe Jackson's Sunday Papers. Then some Latino guy initiated my Spanish disc which I had to make in order to get this gig. I think his name was Chianto or something like that. He actually had a good voice but he was pretty drunk so he had a little bit of an issue keeping up. But then again I know nothing about the Spanish tunes that I have so the timing of the titles may have been a little off, I don't know. Then Danny Hooley did Paint It Black, followed by Marc Sloop doing The Beatles' Savoy Truffle. Simeon Berkley did The Who's Getting In Tune, and then Alan Butler did Steely Dan's Do It Again. Jet Schmidt made her Tres Amigos debut with David Bowie's Moonage Daydream to wrap up the first rotation. I kicked off the second rotation with Steve Miller's Living In The U.S.A. , then I think Danny did his second and last song which was The Hollies' He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother(which towards the end he threw in an ad-lib something along the lines of "but he's put on a few pounds as of late") Marc came back with Bob Segar's Katmandu during which I took my first smoke break(It's the Live Bullet version, kind of, except it doesn't have the end part with the breakdown where he says "Goodnight, you've been a beautiful audience!") Simeon then did Drive In Saturday, Alan did Touch Me by The Doors, followed by Jet again with Siouxsie & The Banshees' Hong Kong Gardens(which I don't think anyone had done before, as was the case with Moonage Daydream). As I just re-dyed my hair red for the first time in a while I decided to do something by a redhead, so I started off the third rotation with The Babys' Back On My Feet Again. Then Marc did Subterranean Homesick Blues, followed by Simeon with Bad Moon Rising(he actually requested Tom Petty's Refugee, but that song came up instead and he said "I'll do that". It's weird but some songs have been coming up as being mislabeled lately and I have no idea how that happened. I appreciate it when people are willing to go with the flow like that. Then Alan did Devo's Girl-U-Want, followed by Jet with Heart Of Glass. I started off the last rotation with Alice Cooper's I Never Cry, then Marc attempted to do Echo & The Bunnymen's The Killing Moon, during which I stepped out for another smoke and the track turned out to be incomplete and cut off. I let him try it again as I thought it might have been a fluke(like the machine malfunctioned as has been known to happen before) but it's a brand new machine so it cut off at the same place. I'm going to have to see if I can't download a new version of that so I can reburn the disc. I think both Simeon & Alan had left by that time(I'm gonna start saving the request slips from now on so I can give a more accurate picture of the night)so Jet did That's Entertainment by The Jam. I did my best to do harmonies with her(I love singing with Jet almost as much as I like singing with Jenni Snyder) but the phrasing on that song is a little awkward so we both fucked up a bit. Marc had another slip in for the next rotation which didn't happen, so since his last one was fucked up, I let him come back up and do the very brief The Letter by The Box Tops. Now for those of you who have never been to my shows, I always end the night with what I call the "Oldie From Hell". I didn't invent the phrase, it comes from an old syndicated classic rock radio show called Flashback. Anyway it's usually some sort of AM Gold dreck from the 70's and in most cases these are guilty pleasures for me, but occasionally I will do something that I think is just a terrible schmaltzy piece of dreck. When I do do these types of songs I usually sing it in a kind of fucked up way. So tonight's Oldie From Hell was Debbie Boone's You Light Up My Life. I introduced it by saying "I'm not going to tell you who this is, but I will tell you that Patti Smith managed to make this song sound cool. I don't know that I will be so lucky." So I started off doing it kind of half gothy half croony(in the lowest octave I can sing, it kind of sounded like that guy from Crash Test Dummies) but then later I kind of eased into a gravelly Tom Waits voice. It ended up being a lot of fun. So there you have it. In the coming days I will post my songbook here. I hope this blog will help get more people in so we can get more singers in there and keep it going till 2. If anybody who participates does not want to be identified by name, let me know.