Tour Tour Tour Tour Tour
Well friends, we’re off to see the world! Check on over at the shows page for details of our rapidly (tomorrow!) approaching tour. My pops is giving us a camera for the tour so expect some visual documentation upon return. Huge advance thanks to all the clubs and bands for helping us make this happen. I’m impossibly excited to play our songs for strangers all over the east and south and meet new folks and crash on floors and see the ocean and eat pb&j and learn new towns and drive the van and be stinky and stay up far too late for two weeks straight. Wish us well and come and visit if you live near where we’re going!
In the Meantime
I’ve been sleeping on keeping things fresh ‘round here, so I’ll just hustle through some recentlies:
1) This update will be in list form because, on Leslie’s good recommendation, I just finished Sandra Newman‘s The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done and it is all po-mo-list-ridden. Surprisingly, to me at least, it provided a sense of hope that David Foster Wallace-y textual chicanery can actually, in the right hands, produce a moving narrative. (Oh, and for those who’ve read it: i wonder, is the only good thing anyone’s ever done is ‘tell stories’?)
2) We’re visiting Kansas City and Lawrence this weekend, to play shows with the amazing and charming Harvey Girls. They are generous and kind and make great music and were interviewed recently ‘cos of that. Do you live in Kansas? Come to a show, say hello! Do you have friends, relatives, lovers in Kansas? Tell them to come say hello! Details on our Shows page.
3) Met and played with Unlucky Atlas and Some by Sea who were both charming and good. Poor Some By Sea seemed real tired at the end of a long-ish tour, we hope their trip back home was great! Really adored the spirit of Unlucky Atlas, nice cats, willing to help carry instruments, smiled and said hello immediately, hand-make their musics’ packaging, made lovely songs, a great poster, and just generally had a warmth i dig. Check this, their Terence Hannum is a great visual artist, too— this is an oil on linen.
4) I met Jessica Hopper what feels like forever ago, we were probably both like 20 or 21 or 22, and holy crow did she leave a bad taste in my mouth. She was doing promo (i think), for Pedro the Lion and i had dinner with them all and old friend TW Walsh who was on tour/playing in Pedro at that time. Jessica Hopper was nothing short of condescending, manic and mean-spirited through out the meal. Fast-forward to the present and dang, it’s nice the world affords second-chances; these days, i completely want to smooch and then one day marry her prose. Why? Well, there’s this, this, this, this, this (yes, i did it) and finally, and perhaps most importantly this. I have no idea what she’s like in person nowadays, but if half as charming and intelligent as her writing, i’ll have to suppose our first encounter, years ago, was just a bum first-impression. Hopper also makes a great zine called Hit It or Quit It, and i hearts me a zinester on principle.
5) We are planning a big old tour for July. MI, OH, Canada, eastern seaboard, Carolinas, KY, TN, MO, best start hiding your children now, ‘cos we’re a coming and are a good at playing hide ‘n seek.
6) Barnard College Zine Library :: improbable wonderful and true sentence #17 = arcade fire on pancake mountain :: the Midwest Nest Fest is going to be lovely-great :: fave band #329 = the Spectacular Fantastic!
7) David Rees of Get Your War On fame on the why the Minutemen are are the greatest punk band of all time:
D. Boon’s bassist and best friend, Mike Watt, still plays bass, writes music, and tours the country in a Ford Econoline van; and that Mike Watt ends his gigs with the exhortation to “start your own band, paint your own picture, write your own book”—twenty years after his friend’s death broke his heart—and that Mike Watt continues to champion this D.I.Y. punk philosophy while many other punks have burnt out, grown soft, or given up; and that Mike Watt (I imagine) perseveres in part to honor his brilliant friend’s brief life and the possibilities bequeathed to future musicians, artists, activists, punks and outsiders—is one of the greatest American success stories of all time.
8) Thanks to all who’ve come out to shows recently, see you soon!
Songs from 800 Winters
Had a real wonderful time at the Subterranean last week, we really appreciate folks coming out. Eric, from WLUW was kind enough to record the evening, so, a few songs for y’all:
the Safecracker’s Lover (live) [4.1MB] [mp3]
a Compromise Unraveled (live) [4.5MB] [mp3]
Baba O’Reilly (live, a cover) [5.6MB] [mp3]
on Belle Isle (live) [5.6MB] [mp3]
and Nora McComiskey
Beginnings and Endings
So this mostly isn’t news about us, but it’s all very good news, so i figured i’d share. Saw the opening of the House Theatre‘s new play Valentine Victorious — for the love of all good things, it is brilliant! Victorious is the conclusion, three years in the making, of the House’s Valentine Trilogy, whose first installment featured yours truly playing sloppy upright in uncomfortable jeans and a bullet hole ridden cowboy hat. Feels like a lifetime ago… Anyway, this new play is total spectacular, features a freaking 15 piece orchestra which is onstage through-out, beautiful arrangements by Kevin O’Donnell, and our dear friend Marika utterly steals the first act, she’s incredible. See it people, it is wonderful.
Saw Lying in States on Saturday, which too seemed to be a bit of both beginning and ending. I’ve known the States guys pretty much since i’ve lived in Chicago and have seen them play probably about a hundred times. A good handful of those times for less than twenty people. That’s actually one of the reasons I love their band, no matter how many cats are in the crowd, no matter if anyone is listening at all, they put on a super great, super energized show. Well, i think the days of seeing my boys in an empty club are over. They played a great show on Saturday at a completely packed Beat Kitchen. I mean squashed bodies packed, it was ridiculous! They have a new record dropping next month called Wildfire on the Lake and it is gonna catch as such, ‘cept instead of wet fire it is gonna be like a rock’n'roll wildfire where the only thing damaged is the squares and the authorities and rest of us get our hearts warmed.
Susie turned 30 on Saturday which makes my heart warm. Happy Birthday Shark!
On Sunday I went and checked out Bill, Monique and Rob’s new space. Rob bought this building on Milwaukee and the three of them are building it into a kind of punk rock multiplex. It is going to be a venue, it is going to have recording gear in the basement. On Purpose will have its office there, they’re planning to show films, have potlucks, show art, the works. And I was surprised to learn, they are doing it all on the ups — getting lawyers and accountants and a liquor license and such. Nothing against the Ice Factory or Camp Gay or anything but how great is it gonna be to have a space that works like those do and is not in constant threat of being shutdown. So cheers to that!
And finally, the awesome sprinkles on the tofutti rice cream cone that was this weekend, saw root shoot leaf at the Subterranean. Holy crow my friends. Sloppy, smart, chilling, fun, sad, stunning. Careful arrangements, quality lyrics, brother/sister harmonies, so good! We’re hoping very much to set something up with them in March and if so, you must come. There is a song on their new CD Strangers Touching and Never Disappearing that gave me goosebumps repeatedly today. And again, hardly any kids at the show, Kirk and i and maybe twenty other heads. But whateves, root shoot leaf brought the house down regardless, digging and bending toward sunlight.
Oops, dang, one more thing that is actually Notes news. Tense Forms is having its first annual winter showcase in two weeks, on January 28th at the Subterranean. It is going to be something. There’s gory details at the 800 Winters website. Anyway, i want to mention two things: 25 artists have contributed work and we are turning part of the balcony into a photo installation with 800 images. It is going to be beautiful and nuts, 800 photos! And lovely Tense Former Nora McComiskey has built a photobooth that we’re going to park on the 2nd floor and she’ll be encouraging folks to pile in and get their picture taken for free. How can you not love this? Hope see you!