We spent a day in the studio with Eli Crews over at New, Improved Recording and committed 18 takes to 2" magnetic tape. No title yet.
We rocked the cramped confines and took some new material for a test run. Cartographer once again laid it out right. An excellent evening all around.
Barely an Ovipositor show at all. Max was sick, so Ben from Cartographer came over and learned a few songs quickly.
Slim’s Last Chance Chili Shack and Watering Hole exists in an industrial void down by the airport. They really do have Chili, and they may be your last chance.
Once again, phenomenal sound in a great, great venue. Live music is still a priority up there, something any band has got to appreciate.
Police Teeth lead the charge, followed by Generalissimo, then us. The other two bands were both hung over, but you’d never know it by the way they played (except for the fact that they both played a bit short). We were in better form, and delivered to an audience of straight-up rock’n’rollers. While I never know, I did get the impression that a lot of people were surprised to like us. That’s one of my favorite reactions. I don’t think we’re doing anything too “rock”, but I hope it has the same impact. I hope it sounds like raging hormones seasoned with chaos. I hope it shakes people.
And after us, the DTs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the DTs are a hot white fire that burns off all bullshit and impurities. If you’re in a band, you have to measure yourself against them. If get a chance, you have to see them live.
After some goodbyes, we hit the road.
In many ways, this tour is really an excuse for us to follow Generalissimo around and watch them for several nights straight. This show made that all worth while. Getting to play loud music every night as well is just icing for us, and here we got to get that out of the way first so that we could sit back and savor for the rest of the evening. The concrete bunker that is the basement of the Jinx Art Space was particularly suited to the Generals, who brought it. As great as they sounded in Portland, they had that extra little something at this show.
Police Teeth finished the evening off. I can’t think of any better way to spend an evening than watching Adam play guitar. I’m not saying that as a guitarist who’s planning to rip off his pro licks (which is true), but as a fan of live music. The dude has the most incredible stack of moves, and he makes it look effortless. None of it is ROCK, either – no crab walk, no head-banging, no I'M FEELING IT!!! face. More like an animatronic Chuck E. Cheese character having a breakdown. He’s hilarious, and great fun to watch.
What was perhaps most amazing about this night was that Adam split his time between playing guitar and tending bar, handing out drinks to pretty ladies in between riffs. I have never seen anything quite so perfect.
Police Teeth are well-loved in Bellingham, and deservedly so. They put a pretty bow on top of a night of good music.
While “What happens on the road stays on the road” is second only to the Constitution in my list of sacred texts, I can say without violating that doctrine that from this point forward, General Little is to be referred to as General Action. Lots and lots of action.
The sound was great, the staff was cordial, and all of the bands killed it. If you were one of the 8 people there, you know this, though. If you weren’t, well, where were you? Cougar played one of their rare shows, and as far as I’m concerned they are a goddamn local treasure. Catch them if you get a chance. And know that they’ve since changed their name to East Wenatchee Iowa for litigious reasons.
The city has changed. Like any number of small college towns, what was once fertile ground for music has faded into a bog of 80s nights and get drunk and get lucky shot specials. You could see it on Max’s face. This is no longer the town he loved. He looked like he was visiting a funeral home all evening.
LaSalle’s is one of the more successful bars in the city, and possibly the model on which the others have based their business. With dancing cages on either side of the bar and a giant board full of drink specials, this place was built for people I can hardly imagine exist.
During their set, Cold Blue Mountain repeatedly announced that their new EP was available for free at the Merch table. Since I was the only one at the Merch table, I told people it was $5, conveniently putting enough $$$ in the pocket to get us up the road.
Cartographer with a real drummer. This pretty much made the evening for me. The Generals had a new light rig, which made them look like they were playing in an Uzbeki disco. A couple of fake plants behind them would have made that impression complete. I snapped an excellent picture of Ben.
If you ever get a chance, you really need to see the Blind Shake. They make great records, but live they mesmerizing. Being at this show was a reminder of just how much fun rock and roll can and should be.
Whenever possible we try to play with bands that we know will deliver the goods. One such band Generalissimo. They are a force to be reckoned with live, and snappy dressers to boot.
The release party for the Deluxe Edition of Oakland Minor.
As always, done by our friend and colleague, Ben Adrian. Ben's good at what he does, and understands what we're trying to do. Working with him - or rather, sitting in a room with very fantastic speakers and listening to him work - is always a great day.
We went back to New, Improved Recording, where we managed to finish 8 of the 11 tracks that made the final album. Once again, Eli did a fantastic job. The remaining 3 were mixed in Colin's Beatnik Dungeon.
We spent a full day tracking to 2" tape at New, Improved Recording, with Eli Crews at the helm. 14 takes were committed to tape.
Over the next 2 weeks, guitar overdubs and vocals were added in Colin's Beatnik Dungeon.
The last show before recording Oakland Minor. A chance to field test against a sympathetic audience. Mother Yaw had added a third member, but this ended up being their last show together. If there is a scene that we are a part of, Mother Yaw is at the heart of it.
The Stork remains the Stork.
We all like Ghost Echoes a lot, and this may well be the best show any of us have ever seen them play. At their very best, they take you somewhere uncomfortable but irresistable. This was one of those nights.
More time spent playing with these two unique bands in the shanghai
Somewhere beneath Chinatown, interesting noises are happening. There's a very solid group of bands in the bay area who stand for something unique. Sometimes they are improvisational, sometimes they're tightly composed. Usually it's hard to tell which. Both of these bands help define that scene, and both are astonishing to see live.
Max's first show with Ovipositor. Also, the beginning of a long stretch of playing the LiPo Lounge in Chinatown. Shows here take place in what probably used to be the shanghai - the space underneath the bar, into which drugged sailors would be dropped before being loaded onto ships bound for the far side of the pacific.
The last show with Lauren on bass.
This day-long festival takes place at a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere outside of Davis. Highlights for us included San Kazakgaskar and Dead Western.
The record release party for Pirate Flag at Half-Mast.
It seems like there's only 1 or 2 Cartographer shows a year. You should be at the next one. Our part of the show? We had a maraca player sitting in with us. Not by choice, but never turn the rhythmically-minded away.
You can watch some of the fun here, courtesy of Pacific Noise, who are great and should be thanked by everyone who likes music. We are marvellously inarticulate when the cameras are rolling, and they did a fine job editing us to seem cogent. Thanks guys!
The idea was to do 2 sets, going through all of the material for our next record before actually digging in on recording it later in the month. However, as it turned out the club didn't actually have a PA, which meant no vocals. And, of course, emptying the bar.
Laurin's birthday, spent in a basement.
Tom Herman (Pere Ubu, Tripod Jimmie) sat in with us for the whole set. Lenny Bove (Tripod Jimmie) came up and sang a couple of songs with us.
Apparently, we were too loud. This revelation issued during a quick sound check. Most bands of our ilk take this as a compliment, but we actually try to play the room (as the musicians say), and weren't playing particularly loudly. The guitar goes through a 50w amp fer fuck's sake... And we were relative church mice compared to the rest of the bill. Strange. I (Colin) had my usual Kimo's-related tuning problems, but my playing's gotten so atonal at this point nobody really notices. Except for the pretty songs - gotta tune for the pretty songs. Laurin Askew made his world premiere as our bass player, and almost did it dressed as a Power Ranger. Mark rode a cymbal like a pony.
A fun night, which turned out to be Matt Carter's last show with the band.
There's nothing quite like the feeling of clearing one of your favorite rooms in the city. By the end of our set, there were maybe 5 people in the bar. That's counting the bartender and booker. One of the people who stuck it out was wearing a tux and looked like Jandek. Turns out he's an Elk, and there was an election down at the Lodge, which requires formal attire. While it's always fun for us to play, even to nobody, he made the night special. Plus the ROCKALIZER got its first field test, and performed admirably.
Deep in the bowels of Freeborn Hall, we sweated it out for an hour in a tiny little room (don't let the digital reverb fool ya).
28 MINUTES OF NOISE was Ben Adrian of Replicator and Colin of Ovipositor doing some loopy/droney bits, with a healthy dose of riff rockin' thrown in.
Our Tour of Bay Area Dives with The King Hen concludes. We were fortunate enough to end our set playing 3 songs with Tom Herman of Pere Ubu and Tripod Jimmie fame. Life doesn't get any better. Here's an mp3 of us with Tom doing the Tripod Jimmie classic, "Autumn Leaves"
Day one of our Tour of Bay Area Dives with the King Hen. The new space for bands at Balazo is really just the dish washing room, and the sound is occasional. Plus the mic kept shocking me in the mouth. The whole thing was written up in the SF Bay Guardian.
Fed X is one of the best live bands you'll ever see. But you didn't see them at this show because pretty much nobody did. Except us and a few of their friends. And you are a bad person for missing it.
Here begins our long-running love-affair with Chords Are Dead. You can see the Chantry-derivative flyer here.
It's the classic confrontation: on one side of the street, us; on the other, U2. History will record the results. (more)
This was, for my money, the best show of the tour. (more)
Bellingham is one of the greatest places on earth. (more)
5 bands on a Wednesday night. (more)
Our love affair with the Stork continues.
The second record-release show for CEASE THE DAY! This set had only 2 songs in common with the one on Thursday, and tended towards the noisy.
Our first record release show for CEASE THE DAY!
There was a Very Old Man dancing around at the show.
No monitors and the traditional Stork sound (horrible on stage, great in the house). This is not a complaint. Complaining about the Stork is like wrestling water: it does not function by the same rules you or I do, and is what it is.
Being the 3rd day of the week, Kimo's puts on 2 bands for 2 bucks on Tuesday nights. Yeah, I know, it doesn't make sense to me either. Luckily enough for us, a 3rd band showed up, balancing out those cosmic scales. They were on the road, down from Washington, and their show had been cancelled, so onto our bill they went. Richard Bitch did their wig-clad thing first, then we played horribly. Then the boys from Washington got up and had at it. One wag was heard to comment, "there's something really weird about Washington state." And no, I didn't catch their name. Best of all, the show was sponsored by MGD. What this means exactly I don't know - we didn't get paid anything more than the door, nor were we offered promotional MGD merchandise. And the complimentary drink tickets were only good for Budweiser. Matter of fact, I'm not even sure MGD was on tap. Not a complaint, just an observation.
The first show of Ovipositor: Deluxe Edition, with Mark Pino on the Drums, Matt Carter on the bass, and Colin still on the guitar.
Nathan Daly played the drums, Jeff played the bass, Colin played the guitar, making this Ovipositor 2.0 The show was Jeff's going away party, commonly referred to as Maggot Fest because maggots fell from the ceiling onto the crowd in a truly Biblical manner. Everyone switched from bottles to pints and the rock went on unabated. Grain USA and Giant Haystacks played, both doing a set of originals and then one of covers. Nasturtiums and Gentle Mike and the NO RAPE!ists (formerly Nasty Mike at the Daterapists) played as well. Thankfully, no documentation of this show exists except in the minds of the survivors.
Xander Garretson's 4th birthday party. Jeff Kay and Colin Frangos did the acoustic guitar thing, Xander and other children ran around screaming. It's a long way to the top.
Click for MP3 of "Everything Goes Better with Ice-Cream (except cancer)", featuring guest vocal by the birthday boy himself
