the Notes and Scratches // Info / News

New website!

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:09:33 -0600

Hey sleepy,

We have a new website over here:

Notes & Scratches

Come visit.

little snip

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 12:16:00 -0600

we’re done mixing! tonight we drink the blood of kings! or whatever! (soy king blood?)

here’s a little tiny bit of a song that’s on the new record. Still needs to be mastered but i’m feeling pretty good about how it sounds…

bringmayflowers — My Finest Words

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 23:04:00 -0600

This video is our performance of My Finest Words from the closing night of bringmayflowers, shot by Lucas Merino. It was a wonderful event, such a pleasure working with the cats from the House Theatre, and a joy to sing with so many folks. At the end of the clip, I finally get what’s coming to me.

Things will be quiet for the next couple months as we dig in and start work on our second record. But before there is quiet, there will be loud.

Winter Button Up

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:50:00 -0600

image by: Elizabeth Boyne

So the autumn has come and gone and the winter is near over and I’d imagine our seven fans have been on the utter edge of their seats awaiting news from Notes and Scratches headquarters. This is what’s been happening:

Q-town has split-town. Our mild-mannered, oft-bearded friend and pedal steel player Steve has departed for the cool climbs of the Rocky Mountains. I miss him. Our music misses his talents. We all wish him the best and have heard he’s doing well out there and that is so so great.

We are working on our second record. At a snail’s pace. We’re trying to figure out how to get our momentum going ‘cos at this rate it will take seven years to finish. But the expiration date on these songs is April 07 so we gotta get it in gear. Hopefully we’ll soon be able to post a song that we recorded in autumn.

We have a new member. The crazy talented Whitney Johnson has joined our ranks and will be playing viola, accordion, and singing. We are more than a little delighted to be making songs with her and y’all are gonna be floored when you hear her bowing the crow outta her fiddle.

We have a big fun show coming up. Four bands, 1000 one inch buttons, one night only — Tense Forms Winter Button Up. Come on out! Whitney is making her debut with us and even my folks are driving in from Detroit for it. After all those years of practicing in their basement, I think they now miss the dangerous decibels and the ribs rattling!

Then mid next month we’re playing with our lovely friends the 1900s! But, I promise to post here a bit in the meantime. I promise! Hope all are well and that we see you soon…

Home Safe and Thanks!

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:40:00 -0600

image by: Betsy

There are various reasons to travel — curiosity, variety, inspiration, out of boredom, but I think these most lead to the same end: We want to return home somehow changed; to re-enter our lives and see with new eyes.

We wrapped up two and half weeks on the road last night with a homecoming show at the Empty Bottle and while I’m unsure how drastically my eyes are changed, it was so wonderful to be home, to see our friends and sing to them.

That said, tour was very kind to us. No trouble with the van, only one negative experience with a club and so many opportunities to see friends and family, meet new friends, play with great bands and glimpse how cats like us are making their lives in other towns. We are deeply grateful for all the kindness shown to us while we traveled; we ate well, we were graciously taken into to people’s homes, kids clapped when we played our songs and sometimes bought our records.

And now home. I am exhausted today but lighthearted.

This is a video taken by Betsy in Chapel Hill of us playing Rainbow Connection.

Thank you Jeanne and Bob and the Water Thieves and Mon Frere and Jonah and Kate and the Tower kids and Brian and David and Mary Claire and Ian and Cara and Jessica and Michael and Kerry and Ana and Lejuene and the Galaxy Hut and Roy and Sue and Zoe and Nicole and Zero and the Trekky kids and all the wonderful cats at the Werehouse and Autopassion and Shannon and Monty and Ben and Elle and Rufus and Stone Jack Jones, for all your hospitality.

a Tiny Morsel

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:10:00 -0600

So, we’ve finished up all the writing for the new record — sixteen songs to be recorded in early June. I’m real excited about the new material. What follows is just a simple acoustic demo, but I cannot wait for y’all to hear it in its full arrangement. It is the last song written for the record and I’m real pleased about how it touches on and ties together metaphors and themes that run through-out the other songs. I hope you like it.

with Scribbled Lines (demo) [3.9mb] [mp3]

Tour Tour Tour Tour Tour

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 15:56:00 -0600

image by: Anika Balaconis and Joshua Dumas

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

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 19:18:00 -0600

image by: joshua dumas

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

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 18:55:00 -0600

image by: Cortney Groves

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]

Thank You and Happy Holidays!

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 14:38:00 -0600

image by: Cortney Groves

Just want to thank everyone that came out to the Empty Bottle last weekend. We hugely hugely appreciate your kindness, support and dancing. I hope y’all had as much fun as we did!

I’m at my folks place, so i’ll make this quick:
First, whipped up a quick little cover for the holidays. It is a seriously revised version of a Pogues song. Have a listen and happy holidays!

Fairytale of New York [3.5MB] [mp3]

For a more traditional take on the song, check out the super good Toronto blog Chromewaves for a brillant Stars’ version of Fairytale of New York ~~[5.6MB] [mp3]~~. UPDATE: Time’s up on this one. By the way, if you’ve not spent time with Stars’ late 2004 release Set Yourself on Fire, spend your Xmas gift cards on it. Second best record i heard and best live show i saw in 2005!

Oh, some impossibly kind reviews have been coming for Uh-Oh, check the Reviews page. Many thanks to all the writers who’ve taken time and shown interest!

So, happy holidays everyone, and peace and joy in the New Year!

Uh-Oh is out! Now! In Color!

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 21:50:00 -0600

image by: Mike Piontek

We have a CD now that we’ve worked really hard to make and we are very excited about it and also kinda sleepy but surely we are very much hoping that other people will like these songs and that maybe a person or two will find themselves moved in a way that makes their life and the lives of those near them somehow a little tiny bit better or at least maybe some dancing alone in bedrooms might happen somewhere, a lot.

The record is called Uh-Oh. It has thirteen songs on it. Endlessly generous and patient Matt Dewine at Pieholden Suite Sound recorded it. Mike Piontek drew the pictures (which are somehow both silly and sad!). The Notes and Tense Forms silkscreened the cover art onto this nice recycled kraftboard. You can purchase it now from the Tense Forms Store. It is available in your usual compact disc format for $10 postpaid OR $5 for the record in mp3 format along with a digital booklet. Thanks for listening and we really hope you like it (or at least some of it)!

Other news— played on the radio with Ami from Radiant Darling. The whole interview and songs are posted at Radio One, a great local music show on WLUW. (Thanks Eric, thanks Sean). Our performance and interview [14.3MB] [mp3]. If you just want to hear the one new song I played without my dumb talking about stuff, it is called how the Day Breaks [3.2MB] [mp3]. (Note: apologies for the sound quality of that one, that’s how LUW encoded it.)

We’ve a date for our record release show! We’re playing with our friends the Attic Recordings who also have a new record coming out. It should be great fun. Details at the Tense Forms Calendar.

Our friends in Radiant Darling have a new record out too. Snap that up in the Store while you’re over there.

What else? I’ve been listening to a bunch of West African Highlife music this week, expect a post about Sir John Warrior and Prince Nico Mbarga sometime soon. We’re playing with the Oracles in few weeks. We get our stickers in a few weeks. Mike designed them and they look really nice! [60k] [jpg]

Oh, and lastly, thanks to Alan at Sixeyes and Sam at 3 Hive. Oh, and happy belated b-day Sam.

So, please have a listen, please buy the record, please tell your friends, please share our songs and sing them to your loved ones and whistle them in alleys and please take care everyone!

Beginnings and Endings

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:17:00 -0600

image by: Sangini Brahmbhatt
and Nora McComiskey

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!

Record Release Show

Sat, 17 Dec 2005 21:30:00 -0600

image by: joshua dumas

here’s the skinny on our record release show:

Pontius
the Attic Recordings
the Notes and Scratches

at the Empty Bottle.
December 17th, doors 9:30, 21+, $8 — buy tickets

the Attic Recordings celebrate their new EP Village Down Below and we celebrate our new CD Uh-Oh

Please come out!

on WLUW

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 15:13:00 -0600

hey, we played on WLUW. they kindly posted our performance. (thanks Eric!, thanks Sean!). yes, the 3rd song is kinda sloppy, but Memphis Eyes (4th) and Seriously (5th) turned out pretty cool, right?

in the studio

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:16:00 -0600

We’re in the studio again mixing. one song totally done, another very close. I’ll try to take some pics soon of the ginormous bruises VJ gave himself playing tambourine last night. I got to play this rad super green melodica that wasn’t quite in tune. We used the varispeed on the tape machine to ‘tune’ the stuff we tracked live to the melodica! Jason told us about how a bunch of early punk records were recorded at regular speed then sped-up slightly for mix down to add ‘pep’!? Crazy. Vic Goddard alludes to the practice in the middle of this really interesting interview.

Three Gut Records

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:44:00 -0600

I'm impossibly bummed to hear that Three Gut is closing up shop. The Constantines dedicated an Elevator to Hell song to the label when we saw them last week; it was a perfect tribute. Tense Forms and Three Gut started at about the same time (in fact i met someone from Three Gut when the Tundra Survey played Wavelength in Toronto) and they've served as a model and a beacon. Cheers to them and many well wishes to all involved in their next endeavors.

There's a nice article in Exclaim about the label. Be sure to check out the oral history at the bottom of that page.

We're still mixing, things continue to go pretty well. I'm looking forward to really digging in tonight; I don't have to work tomorrow so i think we'll plug away all night. I'm crazy tired though, the past days have been like this:

Wake with troublesome beer and cigarette mouth, make haste to work. Drink a pots-worth of coffee. Stumble through the dayjob, make haste to the studio in ulcer-inducing rush hour traffic. Mix, mix, fight, mix, smoke, hit stuff with a screwdriver until the static vanishes, smoke, Tecate, mix, more coffee, smoke. Drive home at 4am. Repeat.

The sleep deprivation is pretty rad, but the best part of this whole scenario is how rapidly it's accelerating my tooth decay. Goodbye meddlesome teeth! It was fun, but as i'm sure you know, I've been on the fence about this relationship for awhile and well, i just need more gums in my life.

+1.5dbs at 2k, +1db at 4k

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:10:00 -0600

Yup. That’s right. We’re now 2.5 decibels from having a finished record. Spent last week, the weekend and yesterday mastering and it is really close. We need the mids to sizzle alittle more and then it’s in the can.

We played a really fun show on sunday. Mark Benson (of Lying in States) joined us as a 2nd drummer/percussionist. It was rocking and bittersweet. VJ leaves for DC this saturday and the show was his last as our drummer. Come september we’ll be joined by Robbie of Where the Moon Came From. In other membership news it is not impossible that we’ll be adding a cellist to the mix. I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, we’re gonna be missing VJ something fierce. I’ve lived with him for two years now, and his insight and encouragement are writ large on our songs and our hearts.

Are all the best songs about leaving? The intersection of hope and regret? Wilco’s Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard.

Record Release Date set

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 13:34:00 -0600

Good news! We finally are putting our record out. It is called Uh-Oh. We’re looking at a release date of November 18th. It’ll be available in the Tense Forms Online Store in CD and in mp3 format. The CDs will cost $10 which includes shipping and the whole record immediately available in mp3 format. If you just want the mp3s that’ll cost $5 and includes a digital booklet with liner notes and stuff. I see bands post tracklists of their records so i guess we’ll do that too:

the Hours
in the Shadow Cast
Seriously
via Satellite
the Clockmaker’s Daughter
in the Morning
the Cass Song
in the City of Eggtimers
the Lines Reveal
the Strings Unravel
the River Girl
in the Evening
on Belle Isle

Keep your eyes out, we’re gonna throw up a couple super secret special songs here before the record comes out.