WOW

You guys?  At Neumo's last night?  I think I'm falling in love with all of you.  Way to party like it was actually NYE!  Thanks to Sean and the Harvey Dangers for keeping our streak intact, thanks to Toucan Pete for champing Basil's bass parts, thanks to Tim Hyland for understudying Basil during the Bathroom Monologue, thanks to Tracy Repep for kissing my tie and then singing her head off, thanks to BOAT for making the people bounce, thanks to John Roderick for the bottle of water and for playing Lennon to Sean's McCartney in "I've Got a Feeling", thanks to the Missus Auer for drawing a happy face on my blood blister, and thanks to the Very Mister Auer for shredding his fantastic guitar during Wurm.  Speaking of, for those of you who would like to know what the absurd prog anthem surrounding "American Boyfriend" was:  "Starship Tr00per", written and performed by Yes on their 1971 powerhouse The Yes Album.  Yes!  They're considered spiritual leaders of a sort around here.  If you'd like to hear what we sound like doing this epic when we have a studio in which to play our parts, go over here.  (Happy Strangercrombie '06, Thomsen!)

I think I speak for all "Awesome"s everywhere when I say that you, reading this, are awesome as well.  We all wish you the happiest of new years.  2008 contains all our beautiful futures.

COW

Cornucopia of Whatever: coming this fall! (thanks Rob)

The Doctor and the Ladder

Part 3 of 3.  

I feel that this punctuates the end of my Xmas vacation... but maybe that's because I'm blogging from work.

Whadjegitferchristmas?

I got a baby.














This is Nora.

She was born on Dec. 22.

She's pretty rad.

Thanks to Molly for the threads.

John O's Album Gets a Review!

See here where the Seattle PI gives a review to our man John's recent Fly The December Skies. My favorite songs are Little, Snowflake, The Start and the End, Push On, and Madison. But they're all fucking great. What a jerk.

-David


P.S. on a totally different subject, what has our resident Stephen Sondheim expert (Mr. Mosher) got to say about the new Sweeny Todd movie?

Narcotic Exquisite (with Apologies to Wallace Stevens)

As the droozy dew of Vicodin
Brings forth
The wet-glazed palm
And yellow dream’s appetite for life,

As the droozy dew of Vicodin
Brings forth birds and birds
From the Nebula,
Nebula unfolding jubilant curves
And mad curves of jubilant curves,

And unscrupulous effluvia,
Shine though the lens of the vast playpen,
And pontifical frost
So, in me, comes wringing
Wrinkles, rules, and the ruin of rules.

-David

Stairway To Heaven? Hell, yes.

Pete (aka not Basil) laid this on us last night during a break from mixing some Half Brothers tunes. This seals my vow to never listen to the original again.

People in Japan do this for fun and money

My wife tells me that a friend of ours is one of the black-clad puppeteers. I always knew we had the coolest friends.

Destroying walls exactly where they used to be

It's my day to blog so here I am with Part 2 of 3:  Doc Nixon's Entropy Express!    

Thought of all of you at the Rendezvous last night - I was chillaxin' in Iowa City with our man Johnny K., who's there studying to be a Master of the Fine Art of Directing.  Things I noticed: A) nearly everyone chain-smokes in the bars here.  It made me homesick.  B) I still have a difficult time succinctly describing what we do to folks with no context other than a common friend, even if that friend directed one of our... entertainments.  C) Hunky Dory is a good album to rock while driving home on tiny Iowan roads at 2:30AM.  

Oh, I miss you pretty things.

José Bold & The Anderson One

So how many people think J. Osebold isn't such a bad songwriter after all? The solo (plus guests) show at the Rendezvous last night hosted by Mister O of Awesome was one of the best musical experiences of the year! Kirky Kirk was a top-notch foil as usual, what with the singing, playing, and general tomfoolery.

A brilliant attempt at shooting for the stars.

And he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you lousy kids.

-- Pete (aka Not Basil)

Oscar: worthy?

Apparently not worthy of a waiver from the WGA, reports Annie at Slog.

Take that, Dick Clark Productions!

Judging from the comment thread on that post, I'm not the only one who CANNOT WAIT to see what this writers' strike will do to Hollywood. And especially to the Academy Awards, the most bloated, asinine, self-congratulatory industry stroke-fest of all the Awards. Truly, I'm filled with gleeful dread and anticipation. Like when you put your army men in the microwave - nothing really happens at first and then - EWWWW!! Awesome!!

 

Maybe after the strike is done microwaving Hollywood, there'll be something better to make out of that puddle of green plastic goo. Or at least people will realize that the writers (and musicians and actors, for that matter) who devote themselves to making things pretty, clever, thoughtful, entertaining and (ugh, okay) "magical", deserve the right to make a decent living at it.  

The Pentagon has no bathrooms.

That's what my dream told me last night.

Also, that Evan can turn into a bumblebee at will.

Dream interpretations anyone?

-David

Evan! Make Sure Your Dad Is Okay!

Singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg dies at age 56

FLY THE DECEMBER SKIES!

Guilty Pleasures

So, there are many days here when I leave my desk 6 times or less, to empty my bladder and refill my Nalgene bottle. I try to combine these trips for maximum efficiency. Sometimes I just pee into my Nalgene bottle to stay really efficient. Yesterday was one of those days.

And I listened to a lot of music. Thanks to the iPod shuffle, I remembered how much I like the song "Hurricane Amore" by the Ocean Blue. It really needs a harmony vocal, though. Then I thought about how often harmony can 'sweeten' a song. The power of Garfunkel should never be underestimated.

One thing I'd like to do with the rest of the band in 2008 is to create song that has a lot of choral elements, something where at least one person is singing throughout. There are a lot of good singers in the band, and quite often we get carried away with making intricate arrangements for our myriad instruments, which is sometimes a detriment to our vocal abilities.

I learned this when we recorded Trooper. Am I not supposed to leak that yet? Anyway, it's really nice to stand around a single microphone with three other really good singers. We haven't done that in a while. I'm looking forward to that again. It almost makes me forgive my mother for driving me to Hudson to take voice lessons from the woman who made me sing "The Rose." Nothing kills your chances with 7th-grade girls more than singing Bette Midler in a higher register than they can.

And finally, if you haven't heard Jose Bold's new CD, "Fly the December Skies", you must do this now. He's even giving it away. Just put your cursor up in the URL of this page, highlight "home.php" and replace it with "december". This will unlock a world of beautiful sweetness. If you don't think "Madison" isn't amazing, then you're made of wood. I'm calling Zach Braff now to get it onto his next soundtrack.

I don't know why this post was called "Guilty Pleasures."

Take it from a dancer of philosophy

Exercise Your Right to Vote

By stuffing the ballot box!

Just kidding. Unless you live in Panama.

Good times.

The fine bloggers at Three Imaginary Girls have opened up their "Best of 2007" poll for the voting. 

And a little radio station known 'round here as KEXP has got one too.  

As a reminder: 

The band is called "Awesome"

The album is called Beehive Sessions

We will accept nothing less than total world domination.

Do what your heart tells you.  Then do it again.

Fear! Does not Exist! In this dojo!

Does it!

P.S. We're also auctioning off an original song for The Stranger's Annual Benefit Auction. Why haven't you bid on it yet?  

Did you see the comet last night?

Thanks to all who stuffed themselves into the legendary Comet last night. It was a rite of rock passage to play there with you. Things I learned:

I. Eux Autres is pronounced "Ooz oh-truh"
II. The windows at the Comet can withstand the monster drumming of John from Fishboy
III. BOAT is catchy music, 'tell you whut
IIII. Don't eat Italian before a show
IIIII. Capitol Hill chicks could totally beat the crap out of Fremont chicks
IIIIII. I need a new amp...with lasers
IIIIIII. Brian Flobosh is in town

Holiday cheer all 'round ye'all.

Finally Finshed

I've been working on this damn painting for over a month.

Now I can get to work on the piece Kirk commissioned me to do. I found the perfect "canvas" for it in the as-is section of Ikea. That place is a goldmine for things to paint on! A GOLDMINE I tell you!

Look at old weird art of mine at docnixon.com/art!

-David

Reminderinder

Don't forget:

Tonight at The Comet!

We'll be sharing the "stage" with BOAT, Fishboy from TX and Portland's own Eux Autres (which is a fancy way of saying "no overnight camping without a permit", if our recollection of high-school French is still accurate which I believe it most certainly IS).

The whole thing is presented by the very real Three Imaginary Girls.

We can't wait to see you there! 

(And by "We", I mean "They", which includes "This guy". 

I'm still on administrative leave. Hold all my calls.)

PS:  Here's a link to Fishboy lip-synching a song on some Chicago-based kid's show.  Here's a link to the Stranger talking about the show.  Here's a link to a pug puppy.

23

Damn this Blonde Redhead album is good.

Sweet Melanie Pie Shoppe

Sweet, Sweet Melanie
Couldn't really see
Had a sweet tooth tendency
O my bonnet bee

Had a man, a handsome guy
Made entirely out of pie
Didn't fret a fretty dance, why
He just smelled real good and smiled real wide

But Melanie sought the sweeter meats
A pesky thing, temptation be
But when ye, if ye can't see,
Get the itch, ye answer, see? See.

So off goes she, Sweet Melanie
A teardrop lost for out-to-sea
And left us here, a' you and we
And husband pie, yes, he makes three

Of brushes with famous persons riding transit

My dad (Dave) went to high school in Peoria, Illinois, where he was involved in speech and debate and dabbled in painting. He would often ride the bus to regional tournaments, and on these buses he became acquainted with a competitive peer named Dan. Dan was another young actor and painter from a rival school in Peoria; one of those maddening people who are good at everything and probably have fame encoded in their genes.

There was eventually a tournament where my dad's lead role in a scene from Midsummer Night's Dream was matched against the scene Dan led. Dave's team won by two points (but they failed to make it to state by one point... O, cruelly elusive Fame...) On his victorious bus ride back to Peoria, Dave heard "Punky's Dilemma" from Simon & Garfunkel's just-released Bookends being perfectly strummed and sung by the unflappable Dan at the back of the bus. So he was a talented musician, too. Oh well.

A few years later, Dave bumped into Dan on a bus to Champaign. They recognized each other and started chatting about music; Dan had just finished recording some songs in Nashville, and Dave had embraced a hippie lifestyle with musical hopes. Dan was on his way to hang out with some friends, and he invited my pop to come along and jam with them. Dad can't really remember why he never followed up on the invitation. Who can say what would have happened had he gone? Life is a long, strange thing.

Thirty-odd years later, David Mosher is a popular pastor living happily and healthily in Iowa, and Dan Fogelberg is a retired multi-platinum musician living happily and (unfortunately) not so healthily in Colorado.

I will not attempt to extract a moral from this mid-afternoon tale, but I will admit that I have always preferred Christopher Cross's dulcet music to Dan Fogelberg's. Also, my dad plays guitar way better than I can. I'm hoping to get a lesson out of him during my holiday visit.

Visual reference: Three Guitarist Contemporaries

Jean Stapleton!

Jean Stapleton!

If you're not paranoid, you're not paying attention

We interrupt Rob's riveting and elegantly minimalist live-blog thread to bring you this news update:

Due to recent so-called "precipitation-generated activity" (they're called landslides, you liberal media pansies!) here in the greater Seattle/King County/Puget Sound/Cascade/Olympic region, all train and highway access into and out of Seattle has been CUT OFF indefinitely. And while you might think, "that's cool, I don't need to get out of town anytime soon", remember this, hippie:

Now you've got nowhere to run from Canada.

Don't think they're not planning it right now either:

1. Their dollar is finally stronger than ours. 
2. They've legalized weed.
3. Recruitment of young "hockey players" has been at an all time high for the past 7 years.
4. What other reasons do you NEED?

Do you really think they've been doing nothing but socializing their healthcare and breeding improv comedians this whole time?

Wake up, America, the mild-tempered tide is rising and we are SITTING LOONIES down here. Who's gonna be laughing when they clear the the roads and tracks only to find THE SPACE NEEDLE FLYING A BIG, RED MAPLE LEAF?! FREEDOM ISN'T FREE! You can pry it out of my COLD, DEAD HAND!
ALWAYS REMEMBER! NEVER FORGET! USA! USA!


And now back to Blake Lewis or whatever.

Colbie Caillat (?)

Colbie Caillat (?)

Jonas Brothers (Disney pop band?)

Jonas Brothers (Disney pop band?)

Just picked up Blake Lewis

Just picked up Blake Lewis (American Idol)

talent driver

I'll be behind the wheel of a 15-passenger van today, driving artists to and from the KISS 106.1 Jingle Bell Bash at the Tacoma Dome. I'll post to the blog by phone to keep you updated as to which famous musical celebrities I'm encountering.

-Rob

If "Awesome" records a cover, then Naysayer has to record a cover.

Yes, Naysayer. The a capella heavy death evil-bad metal band that will destroy your face with its monster licks. And that cover should be Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do) by Christopher Cross.

-David

Rok and Roll!

Drawn by one of my guitar students (age 5). Note the extra long rubbery guitar (JO, I'm looking in your direction) and rapt audience members.

-JohnA

Glob Is Blog Spelled Backwards

Okay yeah, so I'm posting a lot this week. I feel like my mother, rediscovering the internet thanks to Rob Witmer, in exchange for a hot meal and some fresh laundry. Long story. Suffice it to say this whole blog thing is still fresh and new to me, and I don't know what to do with it. Should I:

Reminisce about all the amazingly mediocre meals I had, served with casual annoyance, at Bimbo's Band Member Kitchen? Or reflect upon that one time I actually went into Kingcora (sp?) to meet a friend, only to realize some time later that we were meeting at Bill's, thereby officially keeping my streak of not purchasing a drink from that bar intact? Oh, the halcyon days of East Pine! I did have a nice time at Pony once.

Pick a frustration that concerns me and very few others and complain at length about it? Why does the water cooler take so long to fill my Nalgene bottle? Or is there a state law that requires all garbage trucks to visit dumpsters before 8am? Oh, the halcyon days of earlier this week! I did have a nice time cleaning the rehearsal space last night.

Make a blog post about nothing at all, criticizing blogs and my inability to think about something creative to write? Oh, here's a funny list of things I could write about in this blog! Oh, the halcyon seconds of minutes ago! Oh no, I'm so self-referential that I'm writing myself out of existen

Pandaparts and the Slow Blog: A Survey

So I'm at work, which has instant quick internet, and our site is really slow to open. All the time. It seems that Blogger needs a moment to cache the YouTube video of our lady panda, then it loads the content.

Is this happening to anyone else? If so, do you give up or wait it out? Are you no longer a fan of this band, or music in general, because of this?

A Dream of Tens

This morning I dreamed that the old ConWorks space had been converted into a casino for a party. I was playing an old-fashioned 10-cent slot machine above the main gallery, where I was waiting for some sort of surrealistic floor show to start. Suddenly the machine landed on three tens (it was numbers instead of lemons and cherries and such) and I realized I'd just won $100,000. I felt vaguely guilty. One of the organizers (an old friend who didn't seem to recognize me) came over and started handing me a bunch of 45s from an old jukebox, each one representing $10, $100, or $1000. As I counted the records and decided which I'd keep and which I'd cash in, I had a fleeting thought about taxes and which debts I'd pay first. Just then the floor show started, but at that point the dream sort of turned into an audience-participation sexual-performance-art caper, so I won't bore you with that.

I will mention that last night while we were working on mixing the Secret Song, David pointed out the clearly visible Panda Bear Ladypart in the video below.

--Evan

Those bears on TV have toilet paper

This panda needs some Kleenex, apparently.
(You'll want your sound on for this one, trust me.)

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!  Again! again! again! Play it again...

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHAAA!

(And then I got fired from my job.)

Faces and Places

She said that she was going to meet me here, at about 6. It's now 7:30 and the cafe just closed with a hearty chain rattle. This place collapses upon itself with depression until it can fit in my palm. I close my hand around it, get up from the outdoor patio furniture and step outside. It's cold, and getting colder. She's not coming. I'll wait until 8, just to make sure.

Thanksgiving!

Here's what I did: I went to my aunt kelly's in Mt. Vernon. I ate turkey and potatoes and yams with fake sour cream and also ate a vegan pumpkin cheesecake. Then everyone worked on a jigsaw puzzle. Then we went home and watched more Six Feet Under. (We just started season 3) Also, my grandmother gave me some money for helping her make a website to show her art, and with the money, I'm going to buy THIS.


What did other people do for Turkey Day? Put it in the comments!

-David

Eat something, Jenny

Happy celebrate turkey thank you

When Wednesday is Friday is Waffleday.

This is our beloved Waffleman. He's sometimes known as Hugh J'Ardon, and he plays ukulele and hollers as one of Miss Mamie Lavona's White Boy Band. I have heard it told that he once distilled a gallon of moonshine using only his own body. He's as gregarious as he is formidable; a positive force in our fair city.

Tonight he's celebrating his birthday with a musical hootenanny at CHAC Lower Level. Rob and I will be joining his cover band Superfluous for a song or two around 10pm, and then Miss Mamie and her cohorts will vibrate the air in the room with their sexotic sounds all the way until Thanksgiving. It's free, it's festive, and it may as well be Friday.

--Evan

We'd Like To Thank You Herbert Hoover

So there I am. It's a rainy monday night and I'm vacuuming the halls and stairs of my apartment building. (I've got a deal worked out with the landlord to do a little work around the building to get a reduction in rent.) I've had a stuffed up nose since June. I'd go to the doctor if I had insurance. But last night as I slept the nose was amazingly clear. Today it's running like crazy. I mean, like I can't blow it enough. I keep blowing and blowing and still there's more snot. Finally I'm just letting it drip out of me. I'm hunched over as I vacuum so I don't get any on my clothes. Because there's a lot of stairs in the building I'm frequently switching from regular vacuuming to using the hose and attachments. It's a fancy Hoover vacuum cleaner with a little green light that comes on to tell you that the carpet is clean. So I've got the hose out, vacuum still on, and another drip falls from my nose and happens to go right into the hose. I can feel another drip coming so this time I aim for the hose to suck it right up. Then I get an idea. I look around to make sure no one is watching. Then I blow my nose hard right into the hose. When I lift my head up my nose is amazingly clear. And unlike when you blow your nose into tissue and it tickles your nose and just makes more snot come, this is very clean, no tickling. I can't remember when I've felt so fresh. So I keep vacuuming, and every couple of minutes or so I give myself another nose job. Or nose-suck job. A "nuck job" you might call it. And each time I do I look furtively around as if I was doing coke or something. And I'm holding one nostral and blowing and then the other. And for a few minutes afterwards I've got the most beautifully clear sinus passages I've ever had. Nuck jobs are awesome. Anyone else tried this?

-David

P.S. Does anyone know what musical the subject line comes from? Hint: I was in this musical in 8th grade.

Vi-o-lin, Lin, Lin

Fretless mind-zither!

Some call it organ rock

The secret song utilizes accordi-organ sounds, care of Robertson.

Pop Vocal Group

The Milliondollar Quartet! Available for elderly birthday parties and school lunches.

Stere-ery-oh!

Dubtrain Pete has excellent microphone lore.

Hi, Mom

Bloggy blog blog sing blog!

From the comfort of Evan's phone

Literally live-blogging mid-take. Technology!

Live Blogging From The Recording Studio

Here we are at the recording studio. We're recording a song. A secret song. A cover song. We were sort of commissioned to record it by The Stranger. Sort of. We're gonna play it this New Year's Eve. It's a 9 minute song.

Okay, I'm in the big blue easy chair. Rob's on the couch. Kirk is on the leather chair. John A's noodling around on the mandolin. Evan's doing his laundry. John O and Pete and Basil are in the studio proper messing with the bass. The bass is an instrument with 4 strings.

Evan just bought a chair from Ikea. Oh, now John A's got the banjo-mandolin.

Evan is now on Pete's computer looking up a bulk box of pop-tarts that he can buy on Amazon. Pop tarts make me ill. But that doesn't stop me from eating them. One time I bought a bulk box of 25 boxes of Annie's Macaroni & Cheese. That stuff is top notch. Right now I'm not eating dairy or cheese though, to see if maybe that has something to do with the stuffed up nose I've had since June. I really like cheese. And that's saying something, because I don't really like food.

Ooh, ladies just showed up!

the venereal game

No, it's not a disease:

The Venereal Game



Examples:

A group of unicorns is called a blessing.
A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
A group of whales is called a pod.
A group of bears is called a sleuth.
A group of bassoonists is called a blast.
A group of musicians is called a band.

Poem

I've been doing this poetry challenge where I have to write a poem (no matter how crappy) every day. Here's one from about 6 years ago:

A mother's exasperation
took the shape of my unplanned smile
as I passed and heard her child say,
"I'll be in the cookie aisle."

-David

I'm sorry I'm late, I had to attend the reading of a will

There's more where that came from.

Thanks, Luke. I stole your idea.

Anthem: Required Reading

Sooner or later we'll see the clear path ahead and fully embrace edutainment. We've heard that the ABCs at the end of Anthem are useful for youngsters who need more speed in their alphabetic practice. Once recorded, Magic Mouth of Geometric Penta[septa]agrams could help point new counters towards "nine". But do we have anything learnful to say to those with an already firm grasp on numbers and letters? A music professor in Illinois seems to think so.

Last Wensdy I bragged that we were going to get some air time on KUNI, my old college public radio station. KUNI has a huge broadcast area, actually - almost all of eastern Iowa and a thin band of Illinois along the Mississippi, which includes Augustana College in Rock Island. A gentleman who professorizes music there sent us a kind email which concludes:

Incidentally, I am a professor of music at Augustana college in Rock Island Illinois and I thought you might like to know that I'll be teaching "Anthem" in my classes next term (with your permission of course). It is one of the most well-crafted songs I've heard in years. Just thought you should know...

If email was delivered on a truck, this is the route it would have taken:


View Larger Map

Just another example of how the internette renders the big old world in a more manageable scale.

--Evan

RSS and You

By the way, you may have noticed that our new and improved website is built in a blog format for easier commenting (on your part) and organization/archiving (on ours).

However, DID YOU KNOW...

You can also subscribe to an RSS feed of this site? Well, you can, it's easy.

Simply scroll down to the bottom of this page and you'll see this:

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Click on the "Atom" part and the RSS feed address for this site will magically appear.
Well, magically in the sense that it's the internet and everything on the internet is magical and mysterious and really not to be trusted like Harry Potter or Ron Paul so why are you still reading this? Obviously you, like Kirk, hate blogs the internet Ron Paul everything.

Still in the dark about RSS? Don't be ashamed. Click here!

Because "Awesome" Cares^TM

Meet the new bass player!

Well, for temporary purposes, anyway...

The next time you see us play live, you'll likely see this man on bass:













It's our good pal and Beehive Sessions engineer Pete Remine. He'll be holding down the back line with Kirk while Basil takes the month off to be a dad. (If you're not sure how that works, ask your parents, mayor or religious leader)

Pete and Rob are both in the steel drum supergroup, The Toucans, and Pete's studio is the site of many past (and hopefully many future) "Awesome" recording adventures.

Be sure to give him all sorts of love, though it won't be hard. He's a hard guy to hate. And trust us, we've tried.

Thanks Pete!

Kunjabunjas now uploaded

All the kunjabunjas from last Friday's Kunjabunja Art Party are now uploaded and available for listening. Go HERE and search by Date. Enter November 9, 2007. Enjoy!

Or rather, "Enjoy!"

-David

the best worst game ever

I had a lesson with one of my mandolin students today. She likes to learn Irish fiddle tunes by ear. The process involves me playing the first few notes of the tune over and over until she gets it. Then we add a couple more notes, and a couple more, so that the phrases she's trying to repeat get longer and longer, until she's got the whole tune. Which made realize that what we were doing was playing a real-life version of one my favorite early childhood games that makes the most annoying sounds, Simon. (I only was able to get to 11 playing it just now.)

Anyone else have any favorite childhood games with completely irritating sounds?

-John

I'm About To Blow Your Area

This last Friday we had yet another Kunjabunja Art Party. Rob was nice enough to let us use his house for it, even though he was out of town. We managed to not burn down his house hardly at all. The music kunjabunjas were recorded downstairs. The literary/word-art ones and the painting/drawing/visual art ones were done upstairs in the main room. Due to the fantastically wired sound system, the people upstairs could listen to old kunjabunjas on shuffle while the people downstairs made new ones. Rob texted in a title: Three Jolly Benches, which turned out to be pretty funny. I think my favorite kunjabunja title of the night was "I'm About To Blow Your Area", which featured Basil doing a quasi-rap/speak in a New England accent. Take Back Your Cages was also quite good, with Rick Miller on lead vocals. Other notable attendees included: Becky Poole rockin' the musical saw (and also the bird impressions/screeches), Mark Siano leaving his soft-rock stain on everything he touched, Amy O'Neal rocking the mic on 'Stuffing Keeps Going', and Jen Borges Foster keeping the one-word-per-page poetry book going (I just remember that the first 4 words were 'What Softness Preaches Temperance'). Clay unicorns were made. Collective cartoons were drawn. (One of them had something to do with a demon whose car was stolen by birds that took it into the forest and shit on it.) One of the literary challenges involved one person thinking up fake product names and handing them to someone else to think of the slogan. The only one I can remember is:
Speculum On A Stick: "At your cervix!"

We managed to record 41 music kunjabunjas in one night. These are their titles, in no particular order:

1. Cornflakes From The Box
2. God Is Forcing Blood
3. Here’s My Strangest String
4. I’m About To Blow Your Area
5. I’m About To Blow Your Aria
6. My Birds
7. Neckbrace Pulls At Hurt
8. Ponies Ponies Always Ponies
9. Seppuku With Alice
10. Silence Expands
11. Some People Combine Beverages
12. Stuffing Keeps Going
13. Subliminal Face Breathing Softly
14. Take Back Your Cages
15. Try Reluctantly Hard
16. A Year Without Pants
17. You Get Your Face Blasted
18. Accidental Dismemberment Happens
19. Cannibal Cannibal Times Are The Way
20. Can't Help Loving Myself Because I’m Totally Sweet and There’s No Help For Anyone After All
21. Cephalopod
22. Chickenpurplesman
23. Chromosomes Never Compete With DNA
24. Fast Frenzy
25. Form of Idiocy
26. Fragile Lemon Rang China
27. Frankly I Detest Love Part Two
28. Friends Always Sneeze
29. Hey Aren’t We Partners?
30. High Seven Times
31. I Frankly Detest Love However If I Can’t I Won’t
32. Listen, Fantastic Tits Destroy The Planet Again
33. Obviously Space Cannot Last
34. Outpatient Friendship
35. Phantom Lady Freaks Boats Forward Lightly
36. Sometimes Vibrations Can Happen to Anyone
37. Sweet Mercy For Us
38. The Freaks Are Out Logging Toads While I’m Home
39. Though We Challenge Ourselves To Play Upon The Instruments That We Cherish We Cannot Realize It
40. Three Jolly Benches
41. Yesterday Temptation Struck Hard On Toenails

It's taken me several hours just to compile them and edit some of them. Soon (I hope) they will all be put up on kunjabunja.com for your listening "pleasure". Just search for ones that happened on November 9, 2007.

In the meantime, take a listen to a recent favorite of mine, A Stew of Water.

-DAVID

Blogs are stupid

And yet, here I am. Today's spam email titles:

Show this to the kids
Don't forget to take this before you start dating
Evidence for Jesus' Existence
Can we use musical instruments in the church?
Bigger schlong = more enjoyment for partner!

The internet: getting worse since 1997. Just like Fremont!

Friday night live

Okay, so I'm supposed to be the Friday blogger. The problem is, I'm at a coffee shop in Tucson, and my computer battery is about to expire. I don't know how to do those fancy embedded links, nor do I have any pictures of my last two weeks down here in the southwest. Suffice it to say that I've had a great time eating mexican food and hanging out by the pool. I miss Seattle, especially knowing that there is a big party at my house tonight. (Hey you guys! Be careful with that! Yeah, go ahead and eat anything that's in the fridge. Just don't forget to feed the cats!) I promise a better blog next Friday. See you all soon! -Rob

Sunset Over Mustacheville

BEFORE

SIDETRACKED


AFTER

next stop: drastic haircut?

Good Vestday to you.

According to the unimpeachable Wikipedia:

"A popular tradition in the United States is to wear a sweater vest on this mid-week business day. This has led Wednesday to be referred to as Vestday."

As if I needed any more evidence that I'm out of touch with american popular traditions. Today I'm wearing a grey hooded zipper-coat (I believe it's popularly referred to as a "hoodoo"). But I'll spare you my ongoing ontological struggles regarding the nature of popularity, endlessly fascinating though they may be.

Instead I'll share with you some news regarding that popular relic known as Radio!

1. I went to college at the University of Northern Iowa, and they have a radio station called KUNI. Seeing as how the Midwesterners are My People (and Ackermann's, too), I sent a copy of Beehive Sessions to my favorite DJ there: the locally legendary Bob Dorr. Every Friday night Mr. Dorr hosts Down on the Corner, a showcase for midwestern music. It was a stretch, but he's graciously offerred to give Anthem a spin on his November 9 show (this Friday!). My dad's gonna freak right out. Down on the Corner airs from 7pm - 9pm Seattle time, and you can listen online.

2. I bet you've all heard of the venerable Seattle twee-pop band Tullycraft--I had the pleasure of laying down some trumpet licks on their fresh and fancy new album Every Scene Needs a Center. They'll be playing live on KEXP tomorrow morning at 9:30, and they've invited me to join them on horn (and various "aahs" and "heys"). I haven't played trumpet that early in the morning since high school marching band, but I'm looking forward to the whole experience. If you have any questions for Morning Show host John Richards, post them in the comments and I'll (pretend to) ask him on air! I'll obviously be trying to get his opinion on the writer's strike. So if you're near a radio or intertube on Thursday at 9:30am PST, put your ears around it!

--Evan

Classic Rock Block

I have very little patience for Rod Stewart, generally. So it was with great relief this morning that the song on my iPod I thought was going to turn into "Maggie May" actually turned out to be "Every Picture Tells a Story". I love that song and have a secret yen to cover it someday with a special guest on lead vocals.

Along with Rod The Bod's version of "(I Know) I'm Losing You" (a cover of a Rare Earth tune [covering The Temptations] that holds its own impressively), "Every Picture" makes up pretty much 50% of my Rod Stewart preferred listening.
Color me surprised and appalled (apPALLED!), then, when I listened to the lyrics all the way through...

Did he...? Did he just say something about going to Asia and falling in love with a "slit-eyed lady?"

Wow Rod, the French were right when they said you were a nasty person. I haven't felt this duped since Ten Years After's vaguely homophobic curve ball:

Everywhere is/Freaks and scaries/
Dykes and faries/Tell me where is/
Sanity?

A slit-eyed lady?!
Classic Rock, sometimes you really take it too far!
It's not like listening to AC/DC or Van Halen where I know things are gonna skew a little politically incorrect and can mentally prepare (read stop singing along). I mean, Rod's supposed to be pretty safe, right? They play him on easy-listening stations, ferdaluvapete!

As if on cue, the next track in shuffle order was Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak":

Hey you, good-lookin' female... Come over here

Great. So much for running for public office.

RUMOR MILL!

TWO members of "Awesome" are engaged to be married. True? False? Both true and false at the same time? Hmmmm....

Recent Movies Watched

My girlfriend Jen just returned from The Azores. While she's been getting over jet lag and culture shock, we've been staying at home and watching a bunch of movies. Here's what we've watched:

The Dark Crystal Classic Jim Henson / Frank Oz. Jen is totally a gelfling, so I made her watch it. There's a lot a great muppet creatures that only have one quick shot. I appreciate that.

The Incredibles - a very decent Pixar film. There's some interesting subversive themes in here commenting on current trends in education.

We watched the first 5 minutes of Perfume (too gross for jet lagged person! plus, we were eating dinner. Oook!)

Dave-- This is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's just hollywood fluff, but I kinda like it. Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver.

Monsters Inc. -- I own this one.
"Can I borrow your odorant?"
"Yeah, I got, uh, smelly garbage or old dumpster."
"You got, uh, low tide?"
"No."
"How about wet dog?"
"Yep. Stink it up."

Bug's Life Been a while since I seen this one. Eh, So-so.

Sense & Sensibility (The Emma Thompson version) I also own it. and love it. go figure.

The Birdcage Another one on my shelf. I watch it anytime I'm at home sick. It still cracks me up. Nathan Lane is always great, and even Robyn Williams is good in this one too.

Next on the list: Creatures From The Pink Lagoon. I saw it at Broadway Video and was like, "Hey... that guy on the cover looks vaguely familar..." And wouldn't you know it, it's "Awesome"'s own trumpeteer Evan Mosher! Then I looked on the back and lo and behold, the film was co-written by "Awesome"'s own bassist Basil Harris! What the hell is going on here? It's also got Nick Garrison (who is always funny. I saw him some years ago in Hedwig & The Angry Inch at the ReBar) and also John Kaufmann, who directed noSignal and who is currently off in grad school for directing. He used to live in the same building I do. And now Basil lives here. So I went upstairs and grabbed a copy of the movie from him. He warned me: "It's super gay, but it's not porno." Awwww....

Here: I put up a little script that will make some Random Titles. Now you can make your own movies.

-David

French composers, headshots

Last night, thanks to my friend Josef, I went to the Seattle Symphony's evening of French composers conducted by Stéphane Denève (final performance tonight). I arrived straight from work, underdressed in my third-avenue-casual attire and unkempt facial hair, prompting one of the musicians to ask "is he from Alice in Chains?" after the show. Pieces by Stravinsky, Debussy, and a composer named Faure (presumably the musician and not the pioneer of the lead battery) were played beautifully by the ensemble, but it was Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Minor that was so staggeringly good it had sugar rainbows bursting out of every instrument and golden cherubs licking the toes of the most esteemed arts donor. I'm no scientist (anymore), but it takes no degree of booksmarts to know that a composition with "Piano" prominently featured in its title requires a damn good pianist to pull it off, no matter how competent the symphony orchestra. That pianist was one Frank Braley, who is the subject of this come-hither headshot. Mr. Braley proceded to tickle the ivories with astonishing grace, invoking le aforementioned rainbows and cherubs. What can we learn from my experience? Headshots are funny and Alice in Chains is still relevent in Seattle.

Free Tacos

Hey we all get free tacos today. It's true.

Beehive Sessions - whaddiya think?

Okay, so I know we're already planning The Next Album (and thanks, by the way, for all your input in what you think we should record next. It looks so far like Robot Ghosts is in the lead. Keep 'em coming!)

But I'm curious what people think of Beehive Sessions. If you already have it, and you've heard it, whaddiya think? What's your favorite song? What does it make you think of when you listen to it? We spent over a year working on it. I'm curious what people think!! Oh, and what about the special features?

Oh, and by the way, they've played a couple different songs on KEXP now. Isn't that cool? I totally don't regret sacrificing that goat and making that deal with the devil. It's totally worth it! That's not to say that your friendly requests don't help the cause...

-David

P.S. I hurt my neck so tonight I took some old percoset I had lying around. Then I laid in bed watched Sense & Sensibility -- the Emma Thompson one. Percoset & Jane Austen: recommended!

Which Song Should We Record First?

So pretty soon here we're going to head back into the studio to start recording again. The idea was thrown around that maybe instead of waiting until the whole album is done before anyone gets to hear anything, we can record the songs one at a time and maybe release them on the ol' internet. I dunno if we'll actually do that. But suppose we did. What song do you think we should record first? Here's a list of some of the songs we're thinking of recording:

Away from Me
City
Floating Man, The
Fruvolution
Magic Mouth of Geometric Penta/Septagrams
Man with the Bullhorn, The
Mission to an Alien Planet
New Year’s Day
Oar
Robot Ghosts
Whale
What They Do
Yes/No
You Left Your Strut On

So, what do you think?

-David

here's where I am

http://webcam.oregonstate.edu/
-Rob

The "New" Song I Made

I was cleaning my apartment tonight, listening to my iPod on shuffle and a song came on. It was a song that caused me to think, "HEY! That would make a great banjo song!" So, um, here's my attempt at it.

Make sure you make it to the chorus.

Oh, and this ISN'T the Secret Track that "Awesome" is covering.

-David

Secret track

We're working on a cover of a song that we love, but we can't say the name of it yet. It's supposed to be a surprise.
Not for any real reason except that when we play it, it's going to blow minds, topple governments and alter weather patterns in several western states. Including California. Sorry.

We came into rehearsal the other night completely intimidated by it, no one had done their homework (well, except Johann, thank goodness) and we all expected a protracted and frustrated learning process.

However.

Once we got going, it was magical. Everything just started to click or spark or gel or congeal or whatever. I'm so excited to play this song again, I can't stop going over the bass riff in my head because IT'S SO RADICAL! Seriously, everyone's hiking up their skirts and bringing it on this one. Real troopers. We are all very proud of each other and we can't wait to unleash it all up in your earballs.

But we can't tell you what the song is yet. You'll have to wait for it.
Let's just say, it's pretty much all flange effect.
And we are recording it at our XXX-tra secret (not really) newly-renovated recording base/video game palace.

Oh yes.

-BH

More pics posted!

Look at the pretty pictures, thanks again to "Awesome"'s own photographer, Victoria Lahti. Click on that distorted me to see them.

-David

Groupee interview!

Our good friends at Groupee interviewed us in the street outside the theater where we were performing Here's What Happened to talk about our new album amongst other life-extending issues - do CHECK IT OUT.

Vera Project pics

awesome 054
Originally uploaded by chona kasinger

Here's a pic from the Vera show last night.

Also check out these.

More coming soon from our offical photographer, Victoria!



OH! And check out this great review of the show by Three Imaginary Girls

-David

2 cheers for Aidan and 1 for freedom

We forgot to mention that Sir Aidan Fay deserves mass kudos for rallying mass pupils to the Vera show. Aidan Fay! Aidan Fay! USA!

- JohnO

CD Release at Vera

Okay, here's what happened. We loaded in at 5pm. I'd never been to Vera. The walls were black. The stage was raised. We soundchecked with the Sound Check Song. The other bands sound checked. We changed into our suits in the green room with giant windows facing the Sonics foot traffic.
Next Andrea Wittgens took the stage. What a fantastic voice! I really liked her stuff. At first I was thinking she sort of had an Aimee Mann / Fiona Apple thing going. But maybe I'm just thinking that because I'm comparing her to other women singers. Hm. Anyway, she was fantastic.
Then Central Services, who I LOVE. Kevin is fantastic singing with the stand-up drums. The Allman Bros/Thin Lizzy guitar duet in the last song made Kirk and John A and Evan incredibly happy.
Sean Nelson was great, as always. I like what he did with his mouth. You can quote me on that. I liked the Curtis Mayfield cover. Also that Kinks song about money and not getting very much of it in the music business. I was thinking that I wish he'd do Scenes From an Italian Restaurant 'cause Harvey Danger covered it last New Year's Eve and it was fantastic. I played a butler. Evan and an ex-girlfriend who's name I can't remember played the couple in the restaurant. I always liked that song. Actually I like a bunch of Billy Joel songs. 5 of the 7 guys in this band are laughing at me right now, telling me to delete this blog. Well, they would if they knew I was typing it. Which I am. Sort of.
Okay, finally we went on stage. There were more people by this point. Lots of <21 people. At first I think they didn't know what to think. But by the end they were really into it. It was great. We definitely want to play more all-ages shows. It was a lot of fun.

Next was the after-party at Evans, where I am now. We had 2 Kevins here.

Okay Evan is kicking me off his computer now. I'm gonna go find some chips.

-David

I love looking on other people's computers!

I just found this picture on Evan's computer.

Basil gets the mic

Basil gets the mic
Originally uploaded by "Awesome"

This nice picture was from the NOT-all-ages CD release party. Unlike the ALL-ages CD release party we're having tonight at Vera. Yay!

-David

Our New Website

Check it yo. This is what a it looks like now-a-days. One of the good things about it? Other folks can actually COMMENT on it. yes, it's true.