...aaaaand goodnight

Phew!

Great to play some songs for the good people at Chop Suey tonight. In case you didn't notice, we had a blast. We haven't played a club show in a while and it was pretty nice to just blaze through some of our oldies and newies. I only screwed up a couple times, but I thought we sounded pretty solid otherwise for a band that never plays shows anymore.
Thanks to Ivory in Ice World (did you give Rob his socks back?).
Thanks to Library Science (Nice computer. You get teh innernetz on that thing? Come on, I kid because I love.).
And thanks to you, the people of the United States for voting for us for most Congressional band of 2009: we are filibuster-proof!

And don't forget to pick up our new gyro of songs when it comes out in septapriltoberween.
And come to our show at On the Boards in April. It's called West. We played some songs from it tonight. You better reconnize.

My wife says I'm filibustering myself so I will now go to bed.
Goodnight Keith Moon!

This Saturday

Just a reminder that this very Saturday, February 6th will be the "Golden Birthday" of "Awesome".

Now a golden birthday is slightly different than other golden things (wedding anniversaries, girls, showers, etc.).  Your golden birthday is when the numeral representing your age in Earth years on this particular birthday is the same numeral that represents the day of the month on which your birthday falls.  So for example, Evan, whose birthday is on February 5th, had his golden birthday when he turned 5.

HEY!!! 

IT'S EVAN'S BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!!!

Here's Evan at Chop Suey in 2007, wearing his "I Got Lucky" t-shirt, and coincidentally catching a pair of lady's undergarments thrown from the audience.  Here's my best guess at what he was thinking:  "You know, the idea of pretty girls throwing their panties at me sounded good in theory, but now that it's happened, I'm wondering just how hygienic this is.  Basil, can you throw me the Band-Hand-Sanitizer?" Photo by Victoria Lahti *.

Knowing Evan, I bet that his golden birthday was quite a party.  That's basically what we're trying to live up to this Saturday at Chop Suey.  We'll be playing with Ivory In Ice World and Library Science.  Fun! Fun!  Fun!  We'll also be debuting three new songs from WEST, the theater thing we've been working on since forever.


(* P.S.  if you're looking for a really full evening, here's what you should do:  Go to the Canoe Club (409 7th Ave S (7th & Jackson in the Int'l District)) at 8pm to see Jose Bold (John O & Kirk!) at the Jacked Camera Benefit show, then come to Chop Suey to see "A" later.  You see, our photographer friend Victoria (see above photo of Evan) had all her camera stuff stolen, and now there's an ALL AGES benefit to help her recoup some of the costs.  It'll be great! There's booze! They're even going to try to auction off some of my paintings.  (Good luck with that!)  Anyway, this is a great cause to help a friend of the band.)

Awake for 43 hours

I've been awake for 43 hours.  Everything is a melty marshmellow mushmouth sunday.  The cats are speaking Special English.  It would all be pretty great if it weren't so terrible. I guess that's true of a lot of things.  But here, since you're up with me, here's an animation test I've just rendered:
 

My Week of Rockumentaries

It started off a week ago last Saturday. Sarah and I watched Anvil: The Story of Anvil. Sort of a heavy metal rags-to-slightly nicer rags story. It was life-affirming, in a lunkheaded kind of way. Then this Saturday we watched 30 Century Man, the story of the amazing Scott Walker, reclusive 60's crooner turned experimental enfant terrible. This one amazed me, as I had only heard of Scott Walker through Kirk. But he was hugely influential, as it turns out.



Then last night, I couldn't sleep, so I watched (thanks to the magic of Netflix streaming) You're Gonna Miss Me, detailing the life and harrowing times of Roky Erickson, the brainchild behind the 13th Floor Elevators (pioneers of garage psychedelia, complete with a jug player!). This one gave me nightmares. It was more a portrait of a family shattered by mental illness than anything else. But now I totally want to start playing the electric jug.

The Annual 4'33"

Kind of the opposite of math rock, despite the numbers in the title...

Every year I teach this Music & Philosophy class, and I perform John Cage's 4'33".  (This year I played it on a cheap kid's keyboard.)  Then we talk about it.  Today's discussion was particularly lively. 
Here's an mp3 of the performance.

We also listened to some Christopher DeLaurenti stuff, including one of his intermission pieces, which is great.

Sometimes teaching is fun.

Music math is hard!

Check it out, math-pop fans! Jose Bold explains some of his compositional figures on LineOut (the Stranger's music blog).

Ooh! Look what just came in the mail!

Shaping new space

So here's what we were doing when David did what he did that day. Up until last weekend, we've been making our songstuffs and doing our mindjams in a practice space neighboring another space where a band of friendly but possibly deaf older dudes has been trying to learn a thundering version of Purple Haze, probably since the song was new. So it was time to move into a space more conducive to working, thinking, hearing ourselves work and think, and especially not hearing labored classic rock (and the occasional comically lonesome trombone lesson).

Sometimes the universe gets it right, or we create the abundance in our lives, or shit just lines up in a lucky way: a friend of ours with a huge shop (and a band of his own) offered us a rent-share deal we couldn't refuse.

And so we found ourselves in a luxuriously large scene shop with three problems to solve: concrete is bad for feet, sawdust is bad for gear, and cold air is a drag. Witness the solutions as documented by my telephone:


First, we assemble a drop-ceiling/grid...


...which we suspend from the shop ceiling and cover in "clear" plastic.
(This was when David got on the wrong end of a staple gun.)


We hoist the structure up about 9 feet and begin laying floor.
(Hello, walls.)


Basil pauses to invite the viewer to feast his or her eyes on the majesty of a room within a room.


Hey look! Rob's back with some foam and a measuring tape.


A finished floor holding eight relieved knees under four fatigued faces


Suddenly: artmusikspace!

And with that, we have run out of excuses for not finishing West. We even have extra room to move around and stage our unstageable ideas! Access to dangerous power tools for building impossible shapes! And two whole electrical outlets to power it all! Let's remember to turn off that space heater after practice, dudes.

Thanks to Jason and Jed and Bandylegs Johnson for sharing, and to Dubtrain Pete for the floor concept. Let's all get together for beers and hugs soon.

This is what I did today