here nother

Also, CAPTAIN LADYMAN CASTLE
or
CAPTAIN and LADY MANCSATLE

i'm not done yet.

and also for this.

and this too.

and this

turing five

"A"'s 5th Birthday: Save The Date!

This show happens to be on the ONLY Friday the 13th in February. We are happy to be joined by our good friends We Are Golden and Central Services.
Show starts at 9:30pm. Only $10!

Tickets available here.


woo hoo!

Song a Day, 1-26-09

This one's not all mine. The words are an e.e. cummings poem (not the one shown above, although maybe I'll try using them in a song someday if I'm feeling like punishing myself).

The Real Thing

Obama - Man Enough To Kill A Goat

I'm teaching a Music & Philosophy class this quarter. On Wednesdays they make up songs and I record them. Here's one they made about the new president. Some of my favorite lyrics:

He’s rather tall and pretty lean
And now he’s head of the machine
Don’t mistake him for Osama.
Because he's Barack O-Fuckin'-Bama:
Too kind to punch you in the throat,
But man enough to kill a goat.

He got sworn in the other day
And walked around in a parade
You may not know or even care,
But Barack has really awesome hair.

Song A Day, 1-21-09

Another installment, punctuated by the sound of my cats tearing around the house and an unsolicited meowing solo.

Cobras & Matadors

I'm in LA, eating at the amazing Ryan Dobosh's restaurant, Cobras y Matadors, enjoying some of the best damn tapas available for US dollars. The table behind me is loud. I confer with Ryan. "Well, can you please tell Baz Luhrmann and his cronies to shut up?" I say loudly. They leave.

I use the restroom. Someone has left their treasure trove in the toilet. I confer with Ryan. On my way out, I tell Kanye West's table, "One of you doesn't know how to flush. West."

Farmer's market in Hollywood the next day. It's hot. Someone tells me Liv Tyler is nearby. I call Ryan. Upon departing from the farmer's market, I declare loudly to no one in particular, "Arwen had no speaking lines in the books."

I'm cleaning up LA celeb by celeb. For you.

President Obama!

In honor of today's inauguration, here (again) is our JMC-election-remix.

And here's a kunjabunja by "Awesome" called Carpet Baggers For President

Animals in the Pine Needles

The background music is John O and I playing "Four Million Travel Cards"

Today's Cartoon Diary

(click for a larger version.)

Ghosts and Frogs

On Monday no one could meet for rehearsal but me and John O. So this is what we did.

We Need a New Post

Can't think of anything. Here's Sexy Dad.

Song a Day, 1-10-09

Sarah and I watched Pan's Labyrinth tonight. Although we were both underwhelmed by the movie as a whole, we both really liked the mandrake root baby. So I made a song about it.

Commitment to Excellence

Badass: Death row inmate pulls out eye, says he ate it.

More badass: He had earlier pulled out other eye after conviction in family's killings.

Fun detail: Then he was transferred and remains at the "Jester Unit"

Osebold Phones It In

Some photos taken at the Neumo's show last Saturday by Three Imaginary Girls.

whiteness returns

Song a Day

I made a resolution to write and record a song a day for 2009. Here's what I came up with today.

welcome 2009 again

and thanks for coming out to Neumo's last night, especially since no one had recovered from new year's yet. sorry you got chased out at the end of the show. big thanks to Ian, Evan, Paul, the guy whose name I didn't catch who ran a helluva light show, and the rest of the good folks at Neumo's.

Kiss forever.

Welcome 2009

and thanks to everyone who celebrated with us last night at the Rendezvous. 2008 was the year of the rat. If you were there last night you know what chased that rat out.

Special Guests for NYE!

Wanted to let you know that tonight at the Rendezvous for the NYE celebration, there'll be some exciting "special" guests: Jose Bold, doing some numbers from the new december album, plus the HALF BROTHERS, featuring this guy, Rick Miller:

(photo courtesy of Beelzebub)

Man Attacked By Starfish in Belize

A Few Words About NYE

Okay, now that we ate Christmas, we're putting together the order for NYE. Any song requests?

Jose Bold will launch Operation Destroy All That Was 2008. The Half Brothers will counter-attack with a short set, then "A" will finish off the carcass through midnight.

Our apologies in advance if some of you don't get seats; we're not really in control of the door situation but we'll do our best. Our advice would be to arrive at 9:15pm, pay at the main door, and form a little line at the Jewel Box entrance. We'll open the JB doors at 9:30 and commence the out-rocking shortly thereafter.

Oh, and if any of you have a mechanized singing Christmas toy, and are coming to the show, would you bring it?

See you then.

Snowpocalypse Status Update

Basil: Snowed in at home.
Evan: Snowed in at home.
JohnO: Snowed in at home.
JohnA: Snowed in at home.
Kirk: Snowed in at home.

Rob: Status pending. Probably at Fifth Avenue Theatre.



David: Belize

Unexplainable

100% OFF SALE

On JohnO's NEW December album!

BUYBUYBUYBUY

Just kidding, it's not a sale.
YOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOU
He's giving it away free online.
NOWNOWNOWNOW
As free as the wind blows.
FREEFREEFREEFREEFREE
As free as the nose blows.
SALESALESALESALESALE
Olé! Olé! Let's all go swimming!
DROWNDROWNDROWNDROWN

Here's What I Came Up With

Jingle cat,
Jingle door,
Jingle sufficiently the stamen.

Oh what John Quincy Adams it finishes to 12-grain,
In a Sikhism-Chinese Star open Krokus.

Yeah, that was a dumb post.

Got Any Posts for This Blog?

Not really, it's pretty quiet. So here's a holiday Madlib to keep you entertained!

Jingle __(noun)__,
Jingle __(noun)__,
Jingle __(adverb)__ the __(sex organ)__.

Oh what __(former President)__ it __(verbs)__ to __(type of bread)__,
In a __(religion)-(murder weapon)__ open __(metal band)__.

We'll turn the best one into a song at our New Year's Show*!

*No we won't

Got any plans for New Year's Eve?

You do now

Immaculate Conception

We've been working on a film score for The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, a feature film by l'extraordinaire David Russo (whose video provided the moving backdrop for noSignal). I can't sum it up for you, but it's got janitors, breathtaking animation, and the harmonic convergence of unlikely people through even unlikelier means. And Dizzle will now be appearing at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. A big fatty fat fat YAY to that: !!!

After Dizzle, we should re-score this.

Best Resurgence of a Theremin (nerd-pop)

Look! We made a Best-Of-2008 list!

Spam Subjectline of the Day

"Kanye West's mother's plastic surgeon speaks."

This sentence reminds me of one of the things I love about language: From a few simple rules, an indefinite number of different things can result. For example, here we have the rule that

For any grammatically well formed sentence of the form "Noun verbs" (e.g., "Kanye West speaks"), we may make a new well formed sentence by making the noun possessive and adding a new noun after it.

So "Kanye West speaks" becomes "Kanye West's mother speaks" which becomes "Kanye West's mother's plastic surgeon speaks."

-which can become, "Kanye West's mother's plastic surgeon's scalpel speaks."

-which can become...

Who's the Nerd King of "Awesome"?

At the last party at Rob's, I was trying to figure out who is the nerdiest member of "Awesome" by assigning Nerd Points based on various things. But, being not exactly sober at the time, I keep forgetting what the various Nerd Rules are, and how many points each person has.

For example:
1. Add a point if you played D&D.
2. Add a point for each computer language you know.
3. Add 2 points if you get the math jokes in Futurama.
4. Add a point if you think recursion is cool.
5. Add a point if you built scale models of planes, trains, boats, etc.
6. Add another point if you still have your models.
7. ?


I was trying not to add Nerd Rules that specifically apply to just one person. (Like, no fair saying "Add a point if you got a Ph.D. in philosophy", or "add a point if you have electronic bagpipes".) So help me think of some more Nerd Rules so we can really settle this once and for all.

谷啓版チャーリー・ブラウン／お試し版

Practice Makes Awesome

um...

Boredom + Silence = bad movie

I'm bored at work. And I share my office with some other teachers, one of whom is having teacher-student conferences in here right now. Which means I can't blast music, or watch movies with the sound on or anything. Man, that sucks for me. So I decided to make a 1 minute "movie" (mostly using random clips from YouTube) without getting to listen to the sound as I made it. It looks pretty bad without the sound. I guess I'll listen to it when I get home tonight.

Primary III

Oh you're so ________.
You made __ of them.
Do ___ think we'll know?
Of course they _____.

Primary II

Look at all this money!
More for everyone!
Take what you want!
You can wash the blood off later!

Primary

I appreciate yellow in the morning.
I understand a green midday.
I sympathize with the afternoon blue.
I'm not having you at night, red.

The "Awesome" Cycle is Now Closed.

And now it's time to give thanks...

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who came to see it, and especially to those people who came to see all four weekends.

Special thanks to all of our special guests:
Allison Narver
Lane Czaplinski
Tracy Hyland
Tim Hyland
Eric Ray Anderson
Sean Nelson
Mark Siano & The Freedom Dancers
Rick Miller
SuttonBeresCuller (As the 3 Fates. Did you get it? huh? huh?)
Sarah Ackermann

Thanks to our extra special photographers, Victoria I & Victoria II.

Thanks to people who came and worked the merch table or who ushered.

Thanks to our sound board operators, Angie & Ilvs

Thanks to Alyssa Byer at ACT who made this go smoothly (and whose birthday was yesterday -- happy birthday!)

Thanks to Carlo Scandiuzzi at ACT who we've been talking with for over a year about doing this and who finally made it happen.

And last but not least, an extremely special thanks to our stage manager Matthew Echert, who put up with all our insanity and made sure that we actually remembered to walk on stage, and was able to tech and call all of these shows on the fly and did a million other absolutely essential things.

Okay, now it's time to go back to bed. I'm exhausted.

A Preview for the "Awesome" Cycle's Last Weekend

Your last chance to catch the "Awesome" Cycle, and the only chance to catch chapter IV: Tonight, Friday @8PM, and tomorrow Saturday at 8 & 10:30PM. Once again, this is happening at ACT.

BUY TICKETS HERE

"Awesome" Art

Above: "Awesome"-themed art from my good friend Emerald, age 5-ish.

And speaking of awesome art, SuttonBeresCuller, the folks who brought you THIS:


are the special guests this weekend at the "Awesome" Cycle.
There is so much weird art crap in Bullitt theater at ACT right now thanks to them. It's fantastic.

Billy's Public Service Announcement

See the uncle here.

American Election

-Photo by Victoria Lahti (aka Victoria I)


Thanks again all who came. We laughed, we cried, we took back the country.

This coming weekend (Nov 14-15) is the last weekend of the "Awesome" Cycle. Chapter IV is The Littlest Bang.

Shows have been selling out, so if you wanna catch the last chapter, buy your tickets ASAP! (Also, you have a better chance of getting in at the 10:30 Saturday show.)


Here's my attempts to come up with taglines for the final weekend:

"In space no one can hear you sing."
"Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the theater..."
"I wish I could quit you"
"I know what you did last weekend"
"The fourth and final chapter in the trilogy"
"The wrong men. In the wrong place. At the right time."
"Audry Hepburn at her Oscar-winning best in an immortal comedy-romance!"
"Unspeakable horrors from outer space paralyze the living and resurrect the dead!"
"They'll never get caught. They're on a mission from God."

Feel free to add your own.

Truth To Power

Week Three: American Election

Yes We Did

Wow.

For those we ran into at the celebratory mob on Pike & Broadway, I was a little overwhelmed and don't remember what we talked about, so could you email me the details? Greeeeeat, thanks!

Obama is my president. Yes, he is.

Who's it gonna be?

While we all eagerly await results and obsessively watch polit-blogs and polling widgets, why don't you listen to our hopeful political prediction song?

And then, in three days, come to the Bullitt cabaret, hop on our Cycle, and celebrate America with us. There may be pie.

Funeral

Thanks all who came to the Funeral for Indie Rock.


We laughed and we cried and we learned a lot:

1. VW killed Indie Rock.
2. 'Indie' stands for 'Indonesian'.
3. It's hard to sleep after a funeral (unless you have pills).
4. Emerald is cute.
   
5. Sean Nelson makes a great Robert Smith.

Anything I'm missing?

Funeral for Indie Rock

Tonight and tomorrow at ACT


(photo by Victoria II)

We are very sorry for your loss.

The Stranger review of The "Awesome" Cycle

Review available HERE.

Tickets available HERE.

Puppies available HERE.

Rainbows available HERE.

President Elect McBama Obain available HERE.

A thing in a jar available HERE.

Mustache champions available HERE.

Official Letter of Bereavement

click the image to see a larger version.

A roof raisin' good time

Thanks to all those who came out to see Chapter 1 of The "Awesome" Cycle: Seven Brides for Seven Band Members
Next week, Chapter 2: A Funeral for Indie Rock!

DREAMS DREAMS POWER DREAMS ACTION NOW!!

Well, Paul, I'll tell you: there's a fine line between awake and aware. Some would say it's the R. It's where dreams take root, ideas are crafted from paper, sweat, and other ideas. Only you have the power to unlock your dreams and force them into slavery. Enslave your dreams! Achieve success beyond your wildest reality for dreams have no place here!!!

TESTIMONIALZ

JAMES used to be a loser. He used to worry about if he was harnessing the power of his dreams. Thanks to our program, he stripped the thought-bark from the trees of his mind. Now he drives a Buick Enclave! Dreams!

SANDY is an accountant who eats out at every meal and does not tip. Dreams!

JOSIAHAISOJ is a carpenter's apprentice, his name is a palindrome. Dreams!

X is a letter I've taken back from the alphabet. I don't need it anymore. Dreams!

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IS A SHADOW FORCE and I am no longer under their tyranny! Dreams!

The "Awesome" Cycle opens Friday. WE WILL GIVE YOU THE TOOLS TO EAT YOUR DREAMS AND CRAP OUT A NEW REALITY!!!!!!!!!!!

Filter II Release Party tonight

If you like books and poetry and stuff, come on down to the Hugo House tonight. Around 18 poets will do 4 minute poetry readings, and the Half Brothers will do 2 or 3 songs, and so will Jose Bold. And it's free. It's all to celebrate the release of Filter vol. II.
Here's what the Stranger has to say about Filter:

Each copy of Filter—a local literary occasional—should cost hundreds of dollars in labor and materials alone. [But the median cost is only $35.] Editor Jennifer Borges Foster makes each one by hand, sewing the binding, hand-tearing the paper, even hand-inking some of the pages. Inside the second edition of Filter: an essay on cancer and geology by Trisha Ready, literary readymades by Rebecca Brown, symbolist poems ("music cracking in the fingernail") by John Olson, short plays by John Osebold, and more. At the release party: 18 readings, two musical interludes by members of "Awesome," and wine. (Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030. 7–9 pm, free.) -Brendan Kiley

You can also see pictures and order your own copy HERE.

7 Brides for 7 Band Members

If you come to see The "Awesome" Cycle this weekend, you might see this:

The Bee Gees Save Lives

Of course, there was no hard data to back that up. Until now.

Squiggles on my light table late last night after watching Orpheus and Eurydice

Dept. of corrections for mistakes we didn't make but feel need correcting anyway because we're considerate of our fans' time and attention PART II

Linens 'n Things is closing. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We [know] how you love linens. And things. Sorry, 'n things.

Dept. of corrections for mistakes we didn't make but feel need correcting anyway because we're considerate of our fans' time and attention.

We are not playing at Nectar tomorrow night, as CultureMob would have you believe. That's an errant re-listing of a show we played there last month, it appears.

Instead, there will be an electronica battle to determine who will rule the Kingdom of Drum and who will be Prince of Bassland.
If you don't believe me, ask Nectar.

To recap, you won't see us at Nectar tomorrow night, but you will see us at ACT theatre starting next week!

One Week Until White Bread

If you ever fall in love with a logger,
There is something you will have to understand
For as much as we may care you will always have to share
His love with his green mountain land.

BAM! Hear that, women? Don't get between the logger and his land.

Also, Bobby Sherman is a dope.

Also also, we got a new rehearsal space. It's going to be great.

Also also also, anyone want to play a New Year's Eve show with us? We need to pay rent on this mo-fo.

Special thanks to the 4th Graders at Meyerson Junior Dental Academy for making this coffin for us.

You need a coffin for a funeral. And the coffin will appear in Chapter II (Oct 31- Nov 1).

Jump in the pool!

Ever wonder where to put all of those amazing or embarrassing shots you have of us that're just taking up space on your camera?
Stick them in our Flickr photo pool.
We'll keep an eye on them for you while you go take pictures of a better-looking band - IF YOU CAN FIND ONE.

It's easy!
See? Here's one left with us by the talented Flickr member, human? (I think she's from Denmark or something. It's pronounced "Jenny" in our language.):


Let's see, if memory serves this photo is from our Oct. 11 show at Chop Suey...

JohnO is talking about his aphorism theory, Rob is trying to get water out of his left ear and onto his "dry reed", Evan is pushing out more beard hair, Eric is getting ready to head east, David's legs got amputated by accident during Basil's arc-welding demonstration. Turned out to be a great bit, though. We're probably going keep it for our ACT show.
And JohnA is trying to ask the sound guy for more drummer vocals in his monitor. Or he's playing the mandolin, can't really tell in this picture.

Anyway, add your favorite "A" photos to our photo pool today!
Or tomorrow!
Or whenever!
Thanks Jenny!

We Got a Kitty!

Here's the band's new cat, Bandy!

He's actually very sweet. Also, my name is not Eric.

Playing the Banjo During Brain Surgery

YIKES!



In other news: thanks to all who came out to Chop Suey last night. A very fun night it was. It's too bad the Trucks are breaking up. They've got a good thing going.


AND:
It's now less than TWO WEEKS until THE "AWESOME" CYCLE opens. You can still get tickets HERE.

Special Guests for The "Awesome" Cycle

Weekend 1 = theater
Weekend 2 = music
Weekend 3 = dance
Weekend 4 = visual arts

Carp Stoner Rock

Today I met a man named Sandro, visiting from Italy to pursue his lifelong adoration of rock. We met in front of the Singles building and he told me about his great idea for a music genre: Carp Stoner Rock. Sandro, if you're reading this, I apologize for probably misspelling your name and most likely misinterpreting the title of your fantastic new genre...even though you may have inadvertently given birth to a much more important one.

You May See This in The "Awesome" Cycle (Chapter II):

CLICK.

Chapter II is Oct 31 & Nov 1.
at ACT.

Bach Licked Jackson

I just thought you might want to listen.

I Fooled Around And Fell In Love

Yesterday on the way to work, KEXP just wasn't playing anything good, so I surfed the radio and ended up on some classic rock station that was playing Elvin Bishop's I Fooled Around And Fell In Love. Now it's been stuck in my head ever since. Even as I was trying to go to bed and when I woke up this morning. But in my half-asleep state, the words of the chorus kept changing to things like these:

My Shoes are Brown (I Stepped in Mud)
I Mooed a Cow with Bells and Hooves
I Glued You Down and Fed you Runts
I Screwed a Clown who Sells me Nuts
High Dudes are Bound to Miss the Bus
I Truly Found a Melting Stump
I Do Not Pound; I Belly-Rub.
My Studebaker Smells like Blood

Feel free to add you own in the comments.
-David