☵ Dragging an Ox through Water ☵

The Tropics Of Phenomenon (Sweet Dreams Edition) 2010/11/01

2010-10-13T09:15:00.001-07:00

On 11/01 Tokyo's Sweet Dreams label will be releasing an expanded edition of The Tropics of Phenomenon record on CD (originally released on Awesome Vistas / Freedom to Spend).. featuring a reworking of the original cover art by original cover artist Dana Dart-McLean plus replicas of several new paintings by Dana Dart-McLean.. five new tracks by Dragging an Ox through Water, and covers / remixes by Grouper, TJO, The Polyps, Thicket, and ZZ Tapes (E*Rock & Yoni).. writings by Patrica No (Publication Studio), and more.. super expanded Japanese Edition!

New 7" now available

2010-07-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

Now that the physical vinyl 7” is out, the conceptual ghostly disembodied shadow digital one can be too! listen to it if you like it. buy it if you like it more. get the seven inch if you like it morer. come see me play if you like it most. http://bit.ly/dmpbf

<a href="http://dragginganox.bandcamp.com/album/theyre-gonna-send-me-to-the-dead-mumford-pencil-box-factory">Alright Solids by Dragging an Ox through Water</a>

Release Show!

2010-06-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks the release of the new 7" on Stank House Records. Please join us for the release party at Valentine's!

/ Soft Metals / Golden Retriever / Kevin Shields / a song from th’new 7” / calendar info

"Among The Rock" from upcoming 7" free until 23:59 on 20100519

2010-05-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

that's wednesday night!

http://bit.ly/dragginganoxamongtherock

very excited about this new release coming out on Portland's Stankhouse Records.

2010-01-14T22:45:00.000-08:00

New Video directed by M Blash! first actual Music Video of Dragging an Ox through Water! "Snowbank Treatment" interpreted in light patterns, alright. Thanks to a number of people and a number of extremely aroused salamanders. Such a beautifully complimentary world this video conjures! NW Blash.

so many things which qualify as "news" and haven't been updated here. apologies and I'll commit to more updates in the future.. in the meantime, there's generally plenty of minutiae in the 'other things' section on the side there..

I'll be heading out on another tour with JOMF in early February.. there will be some Dragging an Ox through Water sets scattered in the mix as well.. and I'll try to add them to the calendar as I become aware of them.

started renting a studio space.. it's just out of the realm of what I can afford, but I'm willing to hustle for it.. working on a new seven inch for StankHouse among other things.. very excited for some new work to see some daylight.

Hope everyone made it through the sort-of-dark holiday season and is pushing forward into better futures than any yet seen.

Home Now. Upcomings.

2009-08-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Portland at just about midnight on the evening of July 20th, rested for a day and a half, played a show at Mississippi Studios on the 22nd, and left that night to head down to California for the Awesome Vistas show at the Mission Creek Festival. I was sorry to miss PDX Pop Now, but we had some nice beach time and rad shows with Sic Alps, Linda Hagood, Inca Ore. Chen Santa Maria, Perfect Teeth, and Radar Bros.. (in that order and I am forgetting to mention some I'm sure.. sorry..) This was Tom Greenwood, Danny Sasaki, and I in California.. we weren't doing JOMF, but Tom and Danny were doing a band called "Tom Greenwood" and I was playing Dragging an Ox through Water sets.
And Europe was great. We droooooove and droooove. Thanks to everyone everyone.

I'm playing a show next Wednesday (8/12) at Holocene which I was asked by Gina to curate. Decided to make it a benefit for Yellow Brick Road, because it's their 25th anniversary. I'm very excited about it.. Salt Orchard (snare drum and vocal duo, members of Xh and The Better to See You With) and Operative (Scott Goodwin from Bonus, sawtooth waves, live drums I'm told by Jed and Spencer) will both play, as well as Dragging an Ox through Water (me), and label owners from local labels like Below PDX, Together Tapes, Eggy Records and Distro, and Awesome Vistas will DJ from their catalogs between, before, and after sets. Liz Harris (grouper) will show some video work.. and there will be a wearable sculpture procession / fashion show curated by Dana Dart McLean with works by Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Storm Tharp, Alicia McDaid, Loyal Mantooth, members of Oregon Painting Society, and many more along with some choreography by Jane from Janet Pants Dans Theatre. Real strange free-associatively gathered together world kind of night! Please come!

also: tonight! I am playing with Scott Kelly from the band Neurosis who opened my metal eyes when I was really young and also with Bird Costumes, with whom I have played countless Food Hole and basement shows and sometimes even shows in other cities, but with whom I haven't played in way too long.

and: I am gonna be heading down to SF for a really short trip at the end of the month to perform on the 30th as part of John Gruntfest's Raven Free Orchestra. I met John Gruntfest through my Thicket bandmates Ben Kates' and John Niekrasz's organizing efforts with the Portland Creative Music Guild. He and his "Greatest Little Big Band in the History of the Megaverse" are some of the most inspiring and creative lifer-musician-practitioners I've ever met and I'm incredibly honored and excited to get to play as a part of this large ensemble! mark your calendars, Bay Area.

Summer European Tour with Jackie-O Motherfucker

2009-05-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

Dragging an Ox through Water has been asked to open for Jackie-O Motherfucker on a tour of Europe in late June / early July. I am very excited about this. I will also be playing as a member of JOMF on this tour. The calendar is being updated as I learn details.

"The Tropics of Phenomenon" released on CD by Freedom to Spend

2009-04-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

Very excited to announce that a CD version of "The Tropics of Phenomenon" is coming out on Pete Swanson's (Ex-Yellow Swans) label Freedom to Spend.
The official release date is wednesday 20090415.

new abode are new haus

2009-01-30T12:35:00.000-08:00

tour was great. thanks so much to everyone who helped out, came to shows, or welcomed me to their floors or couches.
Portland's at almost 8% unemployment. My job kinda dried up, so I'm gonna hustle.
I hear about parallel economies starting to spring up already. Speakeasies, underground restaurants.
I hear about things getting druggier and drunker.. my old boss has to ask people out of the shop almost daily and there have been some ODs.
I heard an Oakland man purposefully quizzing his maybe-eight-year-old son in the laundromat about an article about the Oscar Grant murder-by-police. They let me do my drying for free since I did my washing there.
I heard Obama put the main focus on Israel's right to defend itself from rocket attacks just after Israel finished off almost 1300 Palestinians with mostly U.S. munitions and also maybe some experimental low power nuclear weapons and also maybe some white phosophorous and also maybe some cluster bombs. At least he's gonna close down Guantanamo.
I heard about a shooting in PDX last weekend.
I drove into a fog so dense on the mountains of I-5 that I couldn't see almost anything and the horizon just barely shone through at the end of it and suddenly it was gone. This was northbound, but at the beginning of the tour I had a terrifying dream about driving off of a cliff in the rain which brought the reality of driving into my driving.
I'm moving on Sunday into a new place in Portland and I am so excited about it!

shurts

2009-01-13T14:49:00.000-08:00

art by Jo Jackson and Chris Johanson.
screen burnt by Ron Burns (ha)
printed by Ron, Dana, Brian so far.

shirts made by American Apparel.
many thanks to Michael Parich as well for helping me order them.

(I will make a way that you can order these like paypal or something once I get back from this tour, but for now, if you're in California, come to a show. They're gonna be limited and this is the first run.)

Live tape on UHU

2009-01-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

coming real soon on UHU.

this show

2009-01-11T01:54:00.000-08:00

was good.

20090110

2009-01-07T15:10:00.001-08:00

the carmps

2009-01-07T15:01:00.000-08:00

13 days left of Bush Dynasty Rule. My dreams have been vivid the past few days.. the wind has been howling here at night.
I finished a sculpture for a show in Austin after having hated it for several days. It turned out beautiful, though, after I worked on it some more, and it is propped up unevenly on an australian fossil rock.
The wind has been howling here at night and the sky has been all orange.
I had a dream about watching a new Crispin Glover movie called 'Paperclip' about a sweet deformed boy who was as light as a paperclip when he was born. His parents had a romantic dinner which was different flavors of jelly out of tubes. this was after his mom had a wayward affair with a smooth but creepy character played by Brad Pitt which was kind of summarized in the early part of the movie. A scene of paperclip swimming in a pool when he is six or five.. his head pulls in between his shoulders like a tortoise, but when he reaches the surface his shoulders stay put and his head emerges with a lot of wrinkly extra flesh which forms a trailing hat kind of. He and his mother embrace really sweetly. It's not played up for weirdness even though the fact that it's a movie means it's inherently played up for weirdness. But the fact that it was a dream about a movie, I guess, makes it legitimately not played up for weirdness. Until it is retold on the internet.
We went to the Cease Fire in Gaza Demonstration on Saturday afternoon. This is fucking ridiculous. Now Israel's going to honor a three hour cease fire everyday to allow WFP to distribute food before it gets back down to business just bombing the shit out of all the people who are at least maybe recently fed. I'm no fan of rocket attacks, but I'm also no fan of blockading (for a year and a half) a region and allowing only enough humanitarian aid through to keep it teetering barely on the sunny side of a crisis.
Then I had a dream, the wind was howling and the sky was orange and the snow turned to whipping rain, then I had a dream of a similar storm, but the clouds were like plasma.. I saw a steady violent cyclone filled with lightning reach down into the water of a pool next door to this unfamiliar apartment where this dream was located. It magnetized a metal utility sink and I saw a wheelbarrow struggling toward it over a concrete ledge. I felt the blood in my arms curdle or clench or draw up toward the electricity in the air, it was painful like a shock and a muscle cramp and I tried to get everyone in the dream into the center of the downstairs in the apartment as far from the electricity outside as possible, but the walls were simple wood and drywall, I kept feeling surges in my arms and on my neck. It was exhilarating, I guess, too.

2009-01-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

sun 1/04 3:30pm pioneer square PDX

2008-12-31T11:17:00.001-08:00

portland got hammered with snow. we were dogsitting and I was really happy about it.
My tour is coming together bit by bit.. only a few holes left.. feel free to check out the calendar and make recommendations as I continue to scramble.

Pete Swanson's Freedom To Spend label is going to release the CD version of The Tropics of Phenomenon! Dana and I are working out the art and such, so expect updates.

and listen to this alice notley poem.

some simple homework.

2008-12-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

Hey please take a moment to CALL (not just write) your representative regarding the conflict in Gaza. The death toll is mounting by dozens per hour.

regular music related news soon.

-dpqb-

2008-12-11T23:04:00.000-08:00

         i                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                         
The Marrow of The Money Is Spoiling into Blood.
 Cynical Financial Perverts.  Leering Prophets of Doom.

argt intr unkn sab

2008-12-10T18:58:00.000-08:00

Why have I never known that the first (1st) Bee Gees record is so good?

I'll be playing in John Wiese's ensemble at Work Sound Gallery on Saturday 12/13.

Also: Oregon Painting Society plays tomorrow night and I'm excited to see them.

#OPS#

2008-12-04T08:45:00.000-08:00

“garden is a dream and willful naiveté is ignorance and ignorance leads to horrors.”

&pond sickness&

2008-11-29T17:16:00.000-08:00

you can now order "The Tropics of Phenomenon" from Aquarius Records in SF! There is a kind review halfway down the page!
also Vol.2 #2 of ANP Quarterly has a nice article on the Awesome Vistas label right at the beginning!

O

2008-11-05T02:28:00.000-08:00

What a Huge Relief. Let the Monumental Task begin.

Nivelles BE

2008-11-02T02:40:00.000-08:00

tonight I got to see Young Marble Giants play at the Factory Festival.. I was so excited to see them and then not at all let down.. the place was freezing.. this big tent in the middle of a field and it was raining outside, mud and hay all over the ground, I gotta spring for some boots. God what good music they play.

OH HEY USA: IF THERE'S ANY CHANCE YOU HAVEN'T DONE IT YET, THEN VOTE! FOR OBAMA. DO NOT VOTE FOR MCCAIN / PALIN. and vote on paper if you possibly can.

2008-10-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

2008-10-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

thanks to everyone who came out to the release show. it was one of my favorite shows I've ever been to. "The Tropics of Phenomenon" will be available to order from midheaven mailorder pretty soon, so check on that site.
I'm out of town for a while, but I'm working on a west coast tour for early December. If you wanna offer any assistance or just say hello don't hesitate to write!

also: VOTE! and I don't mean for McCain / Palin. Palin is a total moron and McCain is not a maverick and the election is not entertainment. This is too important so make sure to do it.

hunger tricycle

2008-10-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

.:.

2008-09-27T08:14:00.000-07:00

2008-09-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow's the Us Again Festival. It was supposed to be at The Yard BUT IT GOT MOVED to Market Hotel in Bushwick so go there!

I'm in Providence and last night I played a show with Raf and Sophie in the Polyps and also with Annikki Dawn which is Kyla who used to be in 2% Majesty! I got a nosebleed off the bus into the boston station and missed commuter rail to Providence. It's raining really hard here today and we're either going to drive or catch a bus back down to NYC but it is not clear which yet.

Thursday 10/2 is a little listening party for "The Tropics of Phenomenon" at Valentine's.

Thursday 10/4 is the release show for "The Tropics of Phenomenon" at Backspace. WHY I MUST BE CAREFUL, BUDWEISER SPRITE, GROUPER DOING A TAPE COLLAGE SET, MAGIC JOHNSON, DRAGGING AN OX THROUGH WATER.

totalities

2008-09-04T20:38:00.000-07:00

I got to play in this band "IS" for the soundtrack record for Chris Johanson's "Totalities" show at Deitch Projects! I think I played hulusi and some drums and some recorder. at the end of the month, I'll be out there for the amazing closing party show, too. It'll be the first time my new record is available.

also: Grandfather Claws show at Forest park this Sunday 9/7 with Portland, Nick Delffs, and Bob Jones. Meet at the picnic tables below NW Thurman and 29th at 4:00pm to hike in to the location. I don't know what happens if it rains, I guess we'll all find out.

also: Portland release show for The Tropics of Phenomenon at Holocene 10/4. More info to come, but so far it's Why I Must Be Careful, Budweiser Sprite, Grouper, Dragging an Ox, and there'll be one more. more info to come again.

act

2008-08-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

we were in europe. we were all over the place. I landed bleary in france and our friend Camille helped us to get a rideshare down to lyon after a few days. Bordeaux, first, I mean. Then Lyon.. where we played with Hector Nuros and Noize of my Navel and that show was totally amazing. Lyon was really good to us and I can't wait to go back. Dana and I covered a Michael Hurley song a lot. Camille saved our asses a lot. Same with Simon. I saw Peter at the Bastille day celebration and won a bet for seven euro which had been made almost two weeks earlier. The show at Camille's flat was totally incredible, too. I know this is heavy summarizing. Got home in time for a show with the amazing Bow Ribbons and also in time for the PDX Pop Now festival, which felt so good to play this year. I missed portland while I was gone. I think I'm gonna be leaving again for a while soon, too. The test pressings for my new record "The Tropics of Phenomenon" arrived and they sound gooooood. Chris said I'm going to have them in time for the secret show on the 27th. which I think is alright to talk about now, but I'm gonna check and find out and get back to you. Maybe there is a flyer I can post or something. Anyhow, that is not the release show, but I think I will hopefully have one shortly after that. Very shortly.

oh and also, James came out with his belowpdx mixtape #1 which I am included on along with ghost to falco, frozen body, inca ore, the tenses and many others! oh and also, I was on the pdx pop compilation this year! oh and also I have a new record coming out. I know I already mentioned that.

Human magic. Glamour imagination. Human mobster. Spilt annoyance magic.

2008-06-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

I just woke up.
last night or this morning I had a long dream and at the end of it I was in a bedroom and a hardy-esque man in a black suit was sort of vaguely menacing us with a bottle. Some other people were there too constituting the 'us'. I took it from him in pretty short order, since he seemed a little out of it and I figured it would keep him from hurting anyone. He, though, immediately leaned over and started reaching for something under the bed in such a focused way that his destructive intentions were telegraphed to everyone. I hit him with the bottle, but not before he had grabbed some little revolver and fired a shot into me somewhere.
A little wooden plaque appeared which said

O godhead thou hast seen fit to die two new under the sun under the earth.
The golden shopkeeper, too, weeps from beneath her silent plot.

NYC has been good. My set last night was rushed. I wasn't finished setting up when they said it was suddenly time to start, but there were unexpectedly five bands on the bill and long late soundchecks, so I did what I could in the circumstance and managed a few golden moments. Got in a really lame dark mood for a few minutes and walked around a little. James cheered me up too and fuckit anyhow. The rest of the show was good, though, and Silver Apples was absolutely incredible. Really inspiring.
I also played at Piano's with Susu and at Lucky Cat with Wooden Nickle and Diacon-Panthers. Both shows were pretty fun.. at Piano's I got to make the most use of the instruments I've been building since I got here.

Nika and I might go to PS1 today but first I am in dire need of laundry-doing.
A bird was gasping on the sidewalk right in the crowded part of bedford next to the subway, I was gonna wait for the bus and I noticed it right there amongst people's feet. Sometimes people would notice it and look bummed. It was pretty clear that it would be trampled, it looked like it was dying anyhow, but trampling.. ugh. I had some paper towel in my backpack so I picked it up to walk it to mccarren park so it could die in peace. missed my bus and walked about five blocks with it when it suddenly flew out of my hands and off into the distance. I ran a block and got on the same bus I'd missed. Got home and took a serious shower hoping for no H5N1 mites. is it an anecdote? alright.

Also: Happy Birthday I Love You

2008-06-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

oh don't worry, I noticed that g. it's still preferable to though.
Silver apples are one of my favorite bands from history.

Jung Sleaths

2008-06-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

ephemerae

2008-06-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

steaeks

2008-05-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

I tried some new things at the Tu Fawning show last night. Snowbank Treatment was not precisely nailed, but not entirely destroyed, either. The set got so good. It felt really good and I got to use my new dime synthesizer, which I have to mic with a telephone pickup on a 9v amp or I think I'll get electrocuted.. tried my bravery and perception of people's patience.. it sounded beautiful, too. We danced after the show was over. I am excited to hear the new Tu Fawning record.

Saw Obama speak on the Waterfront this morning, too. Chris and Sienn were nice enough to get us into the VIP section, too! I am casting an enthusiastic vote for president.

staid.

2008-05-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

I played in TJO & Fred Nemo's ensemble last night at the NO WAR U.S.O. Iraq Veterans Against The War benefit last night.
My tour plans are falling through left and right and I'm no longer certain that I have any way to get around on the east coast now. I'm gonna look into renting a car maybe.. The main purpose of this trip still stands accomplished, though, so I'm alright cutting losses and playing whatever shows I can make happen. It'll be a good tour and I can learn a few lessons and set up a more reliable one in the fall.
I'm playing this saturday at Tu Fawning's release party. Starfucker people are DJing, too, so I am excited as anything about that.
I will write more later soon.

2008-04-10T01:36:00.000-07:00

got the dose of the cold everyone's had recently. I lost my voice just before the show w what can skulls tell us and led to sea, but I'd been working on building some new instruments so I took the opportunity to play these candle-controlled things and i thought they sounded really beautiful. One is built in an old slide viewer. Maybe one day I will have a picture I dunno.
Been getting a lot of recording done. Need help on an East Coast tour for mid June and a France/Belgium/Germany tour for early July.
The Dislodged Mass Is Sinking In The Mud, The Marrow Of The Money Is Spoiling Into Blood.
I'm playing a show at Westside Welding and Machine in my other band jung sleaths on saturday 2008/04/12 with Laundry Room Squelchers, honed bastion, idx1274, Suicidal Tendons, Ecomorti, the moisturizer, Stab At God, American Hair Cut, Jaundiced Member, Skellaten, Sean Ra, yellow crystal star, abusive delay, and Householed.
I'm playing a show at Valentine's in my other band Grandfather Claws (with Eric from Ghost to Falco and Courtney and Morgan from Courtney and Morgan) on 2008/04/21 with Inca Ore and Grouper. We played our first show tonight in a living room for James, Jodie, Dan, Kilynn, Alex and it was a smash shit success

I need some money to buy some parts like ICs, potentiometers, photoresistors, $witche$, and a drill bit set because I want to build all my own equipment as much as possible. I want to make it all fit into one thing. I mean, we'll see. I've been scavenging racing game foot pedal controllers like crazy, though. Oh and I'm a vegetable when you're far away.

reannuals

2008-03-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

Jevon played 'drums' with me at the show with Tara Jane O'neil, Sad Horse, and Dirty Mittens the other night. That set made me feel really good. One of my homemade oscillators got totally stepped on and never noticed but oh well it was only breadboarded. Working on getting a tour in france set up for July, and I think a short east coast tour shortly before that. Then maybe the whole U.S. in May

War's entering its sixth year tomorrow. Almost 4,000 dead Americans at least 82,000 dead Iraqis. Cheney and McCain both say they think Iraq's been a success. Obama's the best game in town but will he even shut down Guantanamo? No torture on American soil. No American support of torture. No illegal wars. None of us can wash our hands of this just because we were against it from the start and voted accordingly. yr taxes still purchase the mess. write your representatives.

2008/03/16

2008-03-10T15:45:00.001-07:00

Hey come join me for my 105th DAOTW show. That's right, small potatoes!

host text tile

2008-03-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

xiu xiu as a full band is amazing.
last night I played a couple songs for Jevon's housewarming. Everything was just battery operated. Dana sang with me on a cover of 'no no no I won't come down no more' by Michael Hurley and Jev played (uncannily well) the stupid ouija oscillator thing I made this week.
I built my first hex oscillator today, just on a breadboard still, but used photoresistors between inverter inputs and outputs. I lit a candle next to it in the basement and listen ed to the pitch modulate with the flickering light. I'm gonna use three next to each other at different distances and partitioned off and make a really unsteady chord.
Lilacs Sprung from These Apes' Brains.
Shut Down All U.S. Torture Facilities.

ghasts

2008-03-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

We got a mean flat tire last night. I thought I couldn't remember how to do it but, you know, one thing at a time. The last time was at 70mph in California, but at least it was daylight. A cop thought I was waving him past and it was probably just as well. We nailed it anyhow. Last night I mean.
I have mistaken presence for gesture et vice versa. Man, work just wears me out sometimes.
Tonight I'll play with Xiu Xiu and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. Xiu Xiu's new record is pretty inspiring. I played with them once before after they put out another record which felt pretty important to me. I'll practice today and try to get my tire fixed as cheap as possible and drop off my PDX POP track in the eleventh hour.

2008/03/07

2008-03-02T09:44:00.001-08:00

2008-02-23T19:01:00.001-08:00

2008/02/25

2008-02-21T23:03:00.000-08:00

remedoei

2008-02-21T22:09:00.000-08:00

'Violet' Hole cover happened almost without being planned. Or I just didn't think it would happen, but Ana said they had a 'Live Through This' singalong in their van afterward.
Piss Mystics have been recording on occasion and are considering a name change to "Moonlit Fuckers" or "Legendary Huffers". There was some other word to replace "legendary" but we can't remember it right now.
It wasn't "prompt".
Gonna play with Bird Costumes and Anni Rossi on Monday at Valentine's. Will try to post a poster in a min. Trying not to be an accountant or statistician? Oh I dunno.

2008/01/26

2008-01-22T18:21:00.000-08:00

011208

2008-01-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

2008-01-09T10:44:00.001-08:00

well we were up on the roof on friday night, well first we went up on the roof across the street to just look at brad's installation on the roof of audiocinema. we were at jessica's opening at small a projects, but brad was still up there in the wind and the rain and we went up and climbed Treachery Ladder and nearly froze but the thing got done and looked great. maybe it's still up there? i don't know my friends. Chillern of the Revolution was a squeeze. ...worms and TJO oh jesus christ. And Jonny and Fist Fite.
Maybe I mentioned the Earth and Jackie-O show and how it was good? Did I also mention that Prowls and Metal Rouge and Tunnels show? No, I did not. It was good.
Cold nights and we had the same dream.
Ice hands. Combing Circle.
My phone battery won't stay alive right now. Lame.
And last night I was reading a book about spirit photography. Shaping a chicken liver into an ectoplasmic baby hand.
Good times Great oldies.

Goodbye M.L.

2008-01-01T21:52:00.000-08:00

Michael S. Lamont
March 19, 1945 - December 22, 2007

* *

a bullet list of things in bullet list form quickly.

2007-12-27T09:41:00.001-08:00

- Tonight's the show with EARTH and Jackie-O Motherfucker at Dante's. I think it's only $5. Make sure you come.
- Kind words from Cary at the Mercury on the breakfast potluck show with Argumentix, Bird Costumes, and Ghost to Falco.
- It's supposed to snow six inches today!
- Last night I dreamed I was in tunnels under Longfellow Elementary. Or Heck. It might have been Heck. Anyhow there was snow above ground.

honk if you're horned or doomed

2007-12-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

played some real good shows in NYC both in Dragging an Ox as well as Janus Pans Dans Heather. Ron and I caught the midnight thanksgiving plane and figured nobody would be on it so we could sleep all over the aisles and chairs and in the compartments but we were dead wrong. Jennifer let us sleep in her apartment the next day, though. and the day after and the day after, too.. and Nika and Helen after that and Christina, and Jennifer some more. Jesus people have well-heated places in NYC. Maya Hayuk let us practice and store stuff in her studio in the Secret Project Robot gallery and I finally got to see the Lamont Young Dream House installation. Monkeytown kinda inadvertantly played gracious host to the portland crew all week long, too, and our show there with Katie Eastburn was tied for most fun with TJO's book release at soundfix. We bundled up because it snowed and Will was gonna throw out this coat which I'm now gonna give to brad, but it kept me warm in NYC because I wore it on top of four others. AUNTS put on two really good living-space shows and Ron, Jennifer and I saw Otto: Zoo Gorilla at the library. I almost went to Miami on the last day because Dana was leaving PDX the day before I got home for NADA. She got to see the stooges.
I got into a fistfight at the airport. Just kidding.
I got up at five this morning and Ron and I are gonna play music tonight, I had a cold which felt like crazy allergies for two days but I feel better now and ready to play. It's dark in Portland. I'll play with Jackie-O fresh back from Europe and EARTH this thursday! EARTH!
And I put a song on a P:ear benefit christmas album!
and Children Of The Revolution, too.

fast words for

2007-10-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

the workin' in a coal mine bar was so good.
dark fabric on the walls and nathaniel's film from with his dad on the back. problems, loyal mantooth, and me. we scrambled and it paid off. moonshine, too.
and the show with final fantasy and cadence weapon. and nifty, too. it was good. lots of people came out and jesus it was good to play through speakers with so much bassss.
fall is here and I've been watching dogs I care about for people I care about. Eric and I did good on our tour and have so far had one grandfather claws practice since we got back. I'll move again soon and then maybe once more in march-ish?
Working on new recordings for Awesome Vistas. Did I tell you that? Well it's project number one. The Tropics Of Phenomenon.

2007-09-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

tour updddate

1. salem played with kalaloch, stayed with kalaloch. in their backyard in a tent because they'd both had the stomach flu that day! gross! they were feeling better, though and taught us to roast starburst over a campfire. man, human ingenuity.

2. stonehenge in eugene and my friend mckenzie is living there! some people came out and I may have had a nip of whiskey or two before Debate Champ Kevin Stone was so gracious with his oly supplies. Was on a bummer when I played, but brought it thoroughly into the room with me with a lot of squealing dual amp feedback and recorder solos. Felt a lot better afterward. Matt and Mckenzie brought us bread from their bakery in the morning! I slept in a future-darkroom with feathers.

3. Crespo says Davis is the epicenter of more-regulations-will-make-our-community-better. Our show at Delta of Venus was fun and then we followed Ganglians and company to an impossibly comfortable house in Sacramento and walked around for a while in the middle of the night. Which was not empty or quiet and there is a moped gang thing happening and everyone there is used to it like white noise.

4. Kevin welcomed us to Oakland and then we went to Eva's for dinner before playing on John Benson's bus. This bus should stay around forever. Modernstate plays with us too and it's good to hang out. Inca Ore's set is beautiful and so is BarnOwl's. I haven't mentioned yet, I guess, how good it is to be touring with Ghost to Falco and seeing him play every night. Epic Oakland night.. we stayed at the Puffin House thnx to Tara, and go to the giant swap meet the next day for a while.

5. Took a nap in Fort Mason park when we got to SF. Found our way to the Hemlock and met up with the Enablers there. Show was good and it was rad to hang out with those dudes again. We'll try to repeat the bill in PDX. Shit they were real good.

6. Santa Cruz early enough to go to the beach. Went to the beach. Eric got roared at by a real beat up looking sea lion. Show at pergolessi was actually really well attended. Got to hang out with Hiram. My old friend Nick just moved to town and Eric and I crashed with him and Molly. They made vegan chocolate chip cookies for us.

7. Securities racket outside the smell. "Just a word of advice, I saw yr car, the one with oregon plates, and it looks like you've got a lot of stuff in there.. windows get broken sometimes, but I could keep an eye on it for you.." so it was an alliance, i guess.. Jim hosted us real nice and brady, alexis, and nathan all came out for the show. LA is full of crickets. We crashed with Justin OMS-B. People change lanes a lot on the freeway in the middle of the night. Maybe we'll go to where Eric lived when he was little. Maybe we'll go to get my glasses fixed. Maybe we'll play a show tonight. We don't know yet.

quit crocket

2007-08-14T13:25:00.001-07:00

I started writing a post recently, but didn't feel that I had time to properly finish it. I'll try to just ease up and write some short posts, right? Ok, so first here's this to catch up:

My car got destroyed by the cops. Well a drunk driver. The cops pitted him into it. it was parked and everything, I wasn't in it or anything. Loud scenario. Late at night. Looked potentially horrific. My car was the only damage from the chase. Alright.
Oh man Canada was so fun. We stayed with Ora and with the Doers and N213 and the shows were good. It rained a lot, but not while we drove. Music Waste.
I was almost late to a show. Oh hell I was totally late. I missed Plankton Watt and felt like a dick. It was an honest mistake and everything.. the same day as Jeff and Robin's Croquet Tournament and Scout's baby-birthday. The same day it started pouring down rain in the sunshine when we got in the car and listened to velvet underground "ocean". Well anyhow, what I saw and participated in of the show was really good if pretty truncated. Meghan played with Ghosting and it was her last week in town before heading out as US Girls for a long time.
and Grouper and I went to Seattle to play with Faulty Towers and Flexions, too. Dr Glorious' might be one of my favorite basements to play in. I want Flexions to play in pdx soon again.

After that I played with the Enablers and I'd say 'goddamn'. We'll play again in california and I'm really excited to get to see them play once more. PDXPOPNOW was really fun even though I was so sick and had a really bad fever while I played. Tour is shaping up in California with Ghost to Falco for the end of September. I slept on a trampoline last night.

Oh and I have been active on Joke Insurance.

Oh and the car situation is kind of a nightmare.

Oak and Eye chapter four hundred

2007-06-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

there was this high pressure storm or something. the beginnings of one. it didn't really culminate into anything, but in the early evening i felt it holding onto me like a sucking frog after i rode my bike home. Erica let me go early and I owe her one for it. I took a nap and woke up thinking that someone was knocking on my door and saying my name.
That kind of air pressure can throw me off. I think it can throw other people off, too. I thought I wouldn't be able to find my way into it. Oh, this was last night. Panther was so different and so good. His sounds were jacked. Their sounds. Joe's in the band now too.
People were so loud and I was so into it. I carved my space. I made shit up and it worked. I leaned into the air pressure. I talked to morgan a little bit beforehand and that was helpful as well. overblowing a plastic recorder into a microphone feels so good.
OhSees played and they sounded so different this time! fast duh duh drum playing and I recognized some of the older songs played this new way. Ohsees are a really good band.
And recently a buncha shows with Ron and Jane in Janet Pants Dans Theeatre along with Tom Grimley who I have to actively resist romanticizing as one of the most perfect artists I've ever seen because that would make it into a distant story and not keep it as just this fucking amazing thing which a person has accomplished through obviously a lot of work. Those boxes are so clean and so alive. I dunno.. the whole thing.. It's just really challenging and inspiring.
Buddy show with Mattress, Bird Costumes, and Ora Cogan at Valentine's and I couldn't find my way into the music. I can usually roll past it, but that night it stuck and when I tried to roll past it, it just got jabbed in harder and sideways. I don't know why that happens. Sorry if I was weird to you. It was rough. The internal criterion. Everyone else played such beautiful sets. Mattress's new song about church that shit might be my favorite right now.
And the Junktown Junksale (thnx Cyrus) with Bird Costumes the next day was bright and redeeming. Was light and betweening and music in the daylight amongst a lot of sunshine and people's good-art-for-sale.
And the next night at Someday lounge for Au's and Modernstate's release party along with A Weather.. I played in the balcony through my tiny practice amp. "eschewed" the beautiful soundsystem? Well I dunno.. anyhow, I played so good I almost got distracted by the goodness of how I was playing. I found my way straight into it. Everyone was so good that night.
Oh and holy crap the Piss Mystics performance at Valentine's for Nathaniel's birthday along with Some Death Songs and Isle Hymnal.. Piss Mystics might be the best band I've ever played in. Razor's edge between transcendently amazing and abysmally horrible. So good. Dana and I process ideas at lightspeed. A Lemon Tree. I think this incarnation might be changing names, though.. Shit Dream.
Went to seattle and had (now) hilarious vehicular (locksmith) misadventures. But got to see Tom Grimley play again and also this dude called Red Squirrels who was so on. He was right there. Just right there. Oh and Last Slice of Butter were on the bill too! It was such a nice surprise to see Travis and Catalin.

So mostly I've been nailing my performances lately. Which is a matter of filling up those songs properly and being in them right and in the situation in which I am performing them. Well who knows whatever will happen but it has felt good lately. I'm not gonna play as insanely frequently, though.

I say it a lot because it's what trades oxygen to each cell. I think about it a lot because it's what trades oxygen to each cell.

2007-05-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

At the limit of what I can pull off without having to step it down to half the ass of it all. Ron and Jane and I are playing a few shows in Janet Pants Danse Theatre (with Tom Grimley!). Practice every night for two weeks and lose track of days but it starts to sound weirdly focused and gooood for something so hasty. Oh there are so many reasons I'm losing track of the days right now. SpaRaInag Taiamae!
Hooliganship had three dee glasses at that show. They played along with their animation which smartly had some the drumbeats in it, too. Lines about injury in valium deadpan.
Dana and I will play in Piss Mystics at Nathaniel's Birthday on the 31st. It's at Valentine's. Courtesy Is Not Bullshit. Courtesy Means That I Am Willing To Give You Courtesy. We'll probably only have had two practices, but we get an amazing amount of focused work done in short periods of time. Writing lyrics which rearrange themselves.. making tones which vomit straight against gravity..
And of course a shit ton of Dragging an Ox through Water shows are on the near horizon. Come see my friend Ora play this friday. She lives in Canada and only comes through not all that terribly often. And the Junktown Junksale will be great great. Pretendingly crappy art which is skilled and made with so much love. (somehow I said that all wrong but sometimes you say shit all wrong.) And that show on Sunday with Au and Modernstate both releasing their new records simultaneously! They're all really good shows. I'm lucky. Come to all of them. If you're sick of hearing me play then just plug your ears and yell during my set or something.. I'm probably gonna either play completely different stuff at each one, or else a really precisely written set which I can dig into and pry apart at the seams. I feel good about it right now.

2007-05-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

Grouper covered a paula abdul song right out of the gate. It was coldhearted snake and made me get all reminded of 1.skate palace and 2.jumping over this big log near fairy lake or something when I was a little kid because I was singing that song a lot then. I hope we play more shows together, I really like her music. Maybe Seattle soon. I played and got some of it way right. It felt good either way and I let the things which were gonna happen happen and made a joke about being glad you are all here to see me fuck up like this. Sam let me use his floortom and I played Oak and Eye along with the newer part which goes "reality is lurking, death is looming, there are predators predating you and me and our ideas of what we might be, I will be the super-related cousin of all these princesses, jesus rules jesus rules".. it has recorder loops played into the contact mic on my guitar, maybe I'll play it again sometime. The floortom collapsed right at the end of the section during which I needed it for an appropriately climactic effect. I played that song for the first time at a show a little over a year ago with Sam and Davis, too. Then Modernstate played, long and loud drones building on themselves, Jesse's beats are sounding so nice behind some of Sam's songs these days. Sam's drumming, too. These songs come into the present so nicely. Peter was there, too, and I got to give him a copy of the "is there heat rising in your neck" record and he has subsequently mailed me a copy of some of his recent stuff, which I am excited to listen to sooooon.
I'm excited to go to Canada to play the Music Waste festival. I've never been there at all, but have played with some really nice people from up there.
Tonight's the Words+Music thing at Someday Lounge, too. Still trying to avoid this weird lingering chestcold thing everyone seems to be battling.. hopefully I'll be able to sing nicely, their soundsystem is so good there. I've never really been into good soundsystems all that much, because I have such a good time doing my own crunched-up crappy-speaker'd sound, but theirs makes me rethink it a little.

notice notes

2007-05-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

"Mind Blowing" was really amazing musically and visually if perhaps not attendancely. Kinks get ironed out. Hopefully there'll be another one soon.

My collaborations with James Argumentix at Artistery and Someday lounge were both really good! The one last night was particularly impressive, though. I actually had some time to really rehearse and learn "Save Life's Golden Receipt In Case Refund Needed"..

Tomorrow is the show with Grouper and Modernstate. This is seriously such a good lineup Jen at Valentine's has put together, so be sure to make it out. I'll be practiced up.

a list of things in list form

2007-04-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

0. dang so much happening.
1.show with xh, fred thomas, and little claw was weird. Everybody played beautifully and yet somehow the night just felt shitty. It was weird, I guess that happens sometimes. I don't know.
2.show with Earth and Noxagt was nerve-wracking. I haven't felt that nervous in so long. I sang so clear. My voice came out of me so clear. The sounds I made swept along like ice-wind from when I was a kid.
3.Dana and Rob and I did our "A New On-Time Face Dot" performance in Ashland, Oregon.. it featured a couple of Dragging an Ox through Water songs and a couple of Piss Mystics songs. I might have forgotten that our efforts to prepare for this performance sort of spawned a new bandlet. Meet the Piss Mystics. Ok. We had a lovely breakfast in a cat-lady bathroom-themed cafe the next morning and then drove on a backwards conveyor belt all the way back northward portlandward. Dana's paintings and sculptures were so good. Rob's LIVE WEBSITE SCREENING was so good.
4.Willamette Week printed a kind write-up of Dragging an Ox through Water as number eight in their best new best new bands bands new list. Thanks to the people who decided to put me on their lllists. That was nice of you. Casey and I talked for a long time about old times and it's probably best that very little of it was printed.
5.Oh yeah, I made a record for my little sister's massage therapy business which she started all by herself and which is called "Beneficial Body Works"[(503) 345-8790 you should seriously call her she is my little sister and is serious about her work and is awesome and deserves to prosper]. It's really nice sleeping music, I think, and a few other people have already said that it's good writing music and somesuch. Maybe I'll make some more records like this instead of just disparate tracks. Anyhow, the record is by Dragon and Ox and it's called "Is There Heat Rising In Your Neck". It's kind of a remix record, I suppose, since it's all granular resyntheses (drenched in reverb and EQ and lots of LFO automations out of phase with one another) of other recordings I've made. It is about being little in montana.
6.Tom from Jackie-O-Motherfucker and I are co-curating a night of art, visuals, and improvisational music called "Mindblowing" on the first thursday of may. Hopefully it'll become a monthly thing. Really excellent musicians and players have been signing on. click back to that link occasionally and there'll be updates.
7.Spring is here. Oh jeez.
8.I'll be doing a collaborative performance with Argumentix at the Artistery on Friday along with the bands Team Evil, and At Dusk. It sounds pretty rough and awesome so far.
9.many other good events coming up. oh and a seven inch on gold vinyl on psychosphere eventually, too.

friday. thursday.

2007-03-26T01:03:00.000-07:00

Dues! Dues?!

2007-03-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

Breakfast potluck show on sunday was about as perfect as perfect can get.
hung out with aaron and ellen (in town from thailand briefly) the night before and didn't get nearly enough sleep in the face of the moved-up time change. not nearly enough. I think a lot of people didn't. Which made it sort of a nice and weird thing to be pushing sounds through. I got there at like 1030 and nobody had shown up yet. Daniel and I laughed about it and thought it would be fun anyhow. I'm so glad to be (sort of) living with those dudes. All of their sets were so good. Bird Costumes did this really.. uh.. i dunno.. sort of nonchalant apocalyptic echo and then Argumentix played three minutes of frustrated brutality in a more nuanced way than you can really imagine that sounding like. I cut through the sleepdep and nailed my set. My voice was clear. Maybe it's like that in the morningtime. I subdued my stupid embarrassment urges and addressed the thing properly. Ghost to Falco put me in my place. Eric's songs are so thorough. I know he's got a new record coming out on BelowPDX. I have it already. You should get it too.
The breakfasts people brought were good, too. excellent.

I waited until today to make a post partly because I wanted to get through my newest eye appointment. I feel pretty encouraged afterward. This doctor was not nearly so disturbed by the appearance of my eye. On a microscopic level, I mean. I don't think I will go blind after all. Jesus. I do get to put steroids into my eye four times per day for a while, though. huh.

James and I watched Rize the other night and it made me think a lot.

We had our best practice yet in Haiku Ambulance on Monday night. (did I mention I'm playing in Haiku Ambulance now? We have a show, too!) Hopefully Chevron will have some shows soonish, too.

BARR will probably jumpstart changes my life every time I see him play. So transgressive and direct. "I will totally fucking BARF on YOUR FACE!"

I am totally excited about opening for Earth. I know I've already said it.

And on Saturday Joel and Heather from Lesley Gore / Brothers & Sisters will arrive here and we will all drive up to Seattle together and play a show with Land What Land before I drive back down to portland for work. I am stoked to see Allan and all of everyone.

I submitted a song to PDX POP, too.

2007-03-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

so we went to um.
not no I went to the I doctor. Eye doctor.
I went to the eye doctor this morning for like the hundredth (uninsured) time in the past month-and-a-half. "This is beyond my scope of expertise" which is sort of a final kind of sentiment, given all the antibiotics I have been throwing against this corneal ulcer. I wished he could take a picture of it for me, and he did too, but he described it and I don't wish to re-describe it actually.
With any luck I will be able to retain vision in my left eye. Not luck.. skill and care and a lot of money. I mean it could easily be worse.
Next wednesday: Specialist in Vancouver. (Cataract and Laser Institute). (Corneal Infection.)
But 1.tomorrow I will go snow-shoe-ing.
And 2.on sunday we will have the potluck breakfast show at the No Fucking Excuses House (from which I am currently living in exile to house-sit for Chris and Jo [and Raisin]) (Hi Mercury).
And 3.Today I got the news that I will be playing with Earth on the 30th of this month. Which excites me to no end because I love that band so much.
And 4.I got my bike, finally. Now I need a lock. Does anyone have a spare lock they wanna part with on the cheap?
And 6.I have a job I like and co-workers I like and people to play music with I love and questionable grammar and a good good (temporary) living situation and some fun shows coming up.
Also 7.Hopefully my new glasses will arrive to the safety supply store (46$!) in the next couple of days.
So this eye thing is ok. Still: This Eye Thing. But it's ok. fuck.

mr. EEs!

2007-03-05T01:07:00.000-08:00

show tonight.. i mean in the past. like the tonight which happened earlier tonight, like 9pm. 8pm, even. Cex Fucx got an earlyish start.. I saw about fifteen minutes of them at Valentine's the other night.. I was trying to migrate rapidly between there and the show I was playing at the Someday Lounge. Which was fantastic, by the way.. collapsing opposites were totally nice and totally awesome. The Doers were totally nice and.. purportedly also totally awesome.. I happened to miss their entire set as a part of my attempt to catch a glimpse of cex fucx at Valentine's. They are really not very far apart. It seemed like such a good idea! It was, too. Jesus. But luckily the doers and collapsing opposites will be back in town on the 8th.
Anyhow.. Cex Fucx blew me away anew tonight, and in a totally different way.. so much more space and intricacy.. granted, I only saw such a tiny segment of their set the other night. Red76 was celebrating the release of their new "Learning is Fun and Dangerous" alternative education journal. I was excited to get to play at the event.
It's been an eventful couple of months. much neglected via mentions.
have moved twice since my return to Portland. These are good moves, though. I am being fortunate as hell. Good friends and good situations.
Played a really fun show up in Seattle with Lesley Gore and Ghost family at The Office of Dr. Glorious.. have another one coming up on the 17th thereabouts.. check the sidebar.. when details solidify, there will be news of such thencely.
Will be Collaborating with Dana Dart McLean at her upcoming gallery show in Ashland. Expect some nice cardboard projectilish's. Hey we recorded a really nice song (*) together the other morning, too.
Oh Oh OH.. and congratulations to Sam76 on his Big News! It is very nice and joyful Big News.
Have been getting down to some new recording.
The best Dragging a Cex through Fucx jam-out after my set tonight. Will post mp3 if it exists.

PDX HI

2007-01-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

Holy crap we swamped Valentine's last night. Thanks Jen. Thanks everyone who came and We Quit and Chin Up Meriwether. I hadn't really had the opportunity to be social since I'd returned on Monday night and spent all of the next two days moving my things out of storage. I couldn't keep up and stopped trying and people didn't seem to mind.
The mercury said nice things, too. (it was my first sort of 'interview' aside from the one Chris and I did last spring, and they couldn't print the whole thing, but I'm putting it up here because I got to talk about people who I like a lot and because I can get cowardly about this sort of thing and felt that I stepped up to it nicely in this instance.)
My new room is big and has three giant windows on one side of it facing out into a winter tree. I almost don't know what to do with all this space after having been in such tiny places in NYC for six months. Then I remember how much bulk I have in musical instruments and figure it'll suit me fine. Living with James, Daniel, and Alex along with No Fucking Excuses, Sadie, and Eric Crespo, who are cats. Eric Crespo the human may or may not join us soon as well.
Feeling a little unfocused, but I'll be quiet for a long consecutive time. I'll try to find the skull. unmake your fate!
I have had vivid dreams in this room so far. Not comfortable ones. Last night we were somewhere on an island. A cold green island. These giant hill-vertibrae and dark skies illuminating them. These sudden cliffs and seawater far below. And these drunk tourists. Maybe I was one of them? I was also not one of them because I was trying to organize a let's-not-fall-over-the-cliff-now-shall-we sort of policy. And then I had a shot. It took a while to take effect, but my jaw started to lock up, the blood froze in my neck, it was some sort of a procedure, they took too long in administering the second shot because it had to be given in the cheek, but through a condom (?) and they couldn't find one which was intact. The brown-haired girl who did not seem like a doctor did not seem to know what she was doing very well. My jaw locked up and the blood froze in my neck. She administered the second shot. I was told to keep my mouth open and felt the side of the needle with my tongue, but somehow its contents were not emptied there. My jaw locked up and the blood froze in my neck. My head felt like a vacuum-dream. It came in waves and I woke up.

Today I will put books on my shelves and try to start picking things out of boxes.
Tomorrow I will walk up to Seattle to play a show at Allan's house with Ghost Family and Leslie Gore. Ok, I will drive.
I saw Leslie Gore play at Jesse's house on Wednesday night and had two of their heartbreaking songs in my mind all day yesterday. They are from San Francisco. Allan says he gets to pick their entire set at his house and has promised to make accommodation for my selections as well.

I don't know when my next show will be after tomorrow night!
I'll let you know in three weeks or so.

show 011107 at Valentine's

2007-01-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

innyc&t'wardpdx

2006-12-28T07:31:00.000-08:00

th'return's been a little unsteady, but i've managed well enough.
Some guy projectile-vomited next to me on the subway the night after I returned. none of it got on me or anything, but I find it a little suspicious that I couldn't even hold down water for the next twenty four hours. Which, of course, gave me a far enhanced version of jetlag. Oh and I was at work the whole time. thread up a film, try to fix a busted xenon arc bulb, curl up on the floor and hallucinate myself into a dream for a few minutes, repeat. anyhow, I recovered in a few days.
Beyond that, my time in NYC is just about up. Six month mark is fast approaching, and I'll be back in PDX by january 8th. Gonna play with We Quit! and Chin Up Meriwether on the 11th, too! The first show of my return, and possibly the only one for a little while.

Europe was pretty wonderful and enlightening and sometimes lonely and amazing. Thanks to Chris Johanson (without whose generous invitation none none none of it would've been initiated), Tom Greenwood, Dana Dart Mclean, everyone at the Nicolai Wallner gallery, K (Bandini Kvartetten) and Rikke, Bob, Christopher, Nikolaj and the IPC, Raf, Jaime, Delphine, David Hull, Sarah Asling, Vince and everyone from Polaroid, Joe for introducing me to them, Kitty Solaris, Brian and his Bedroom Band, Kathryn, HotelBar and Schokoladen, Laura, Allie, Jim McAteer, Lesley McIvor, Dan, (and Allan Western Graves who introduced me to Dan!), Yas, Chris, Mikey, Shannon, Ryan, Catherine, Claire, EagleOwl (Bart, Malcolm, Clarissa), Cameron Les Enfant Bastard, Karina, Sylvia, Jess, Farmhouse Chris, Magda, Saska, El Granuja, The Forest Cafe, CIA Nights (just for existing), Henry's Cellar Bar, Jonathan, Beth, Sonya, Hazel, Alex, defunkles, huckleberry soundsystem, levenshulme bike orchestra, the basement, and lots and lots of other people who were helpful and nice to me.. and lots and lots.. infinitely high numbers, in fact, of people who were kind enough to give me directions when i stopped them on street corners and looked really confused. It was too good of you.

So I got back and have started (almost finished) shipping my belongings back pdx-ward.. reverted to my original sleeping position in my tiny room.. which is with my head toward the window.. bed in the center of the floor.. head, in fact, right next to the window.. I had a dream that I was smuggling something (I don't know what) long distances, each stop was a cabin and there was snow everywhere. I haven't seen snow in ages and still hold out hope that NYC may come through for me before I leave.

(edit: p.s. - chris broughtst'd my attent to this pdxmercury niceness this morning! thanks Adam! I wasn't 'split'd'ing for New York' for keeps or anything! It's nice here, and I will miss it, but I'm coming back.)

hhhh

2006-12-08T06:01:00.000-08:00

survived the nightbus from edinburgh to london with only a mild antihistamine hangover stacked against me. grogged through a couple underground transfers and alighted at heathrow. this keyboard is metal and expen£ive. and hard to type on.

volunteered to be bumped from my flight and got a nice voucher for my trouble. this after i was very cleverly jacked for 15 quid when i first got to heathrow. cut my losses and still managed to come out on top. killing four extra hours.

too ooo oo many highlights from edinburgh finale. got trapped in a flat and had to jump out the window after an hour and a half of failed macguyverisms. thought i fucked up my foot but walked it off within twenty minutes. deadbolts you can;t unlock from inside?!

charity blind date night was a huge success on any level imaginable. carried around enough booze to kill an elephant with dan and they raised somewhere in the neighborhood of 500£ for the afghan schools. my date was a delighttt as well.

oh and skipraiding. a lot of it. dumpster diving in the states.
they know where all the good ones are.

and madonna and wham farewell dance parties in the flat.

gotta stop spending now.
slainte mhath!

2006-12-05T05:06:00.000-08:00

these short dark days. this cold walking around everywhere. yaz and I were talking about it last night. the sweet tooth. I think I want to hibernate. It's the first time I've ever witnessed it quite
so objectively. or.. um.. with what feels like subjective accuracy. And I have discovered what 'fudge' means here. and 'tablet'. butter and sugar. that's about it. Last night I felt like a little kid. Made myself sick. ate some good good rice and peppers dish which chris had whipped up. got over my sugar hangover and started in again. Yaz was slower to resume sweets consumption, so i figure I won somehow.
Dan arrived home from decorating for the blind date after party (from whence I was banished, you'll recall) and yet a third dinner was prepared. I did not participate. We did some dishes. Mike had brought home some movies. we watched 'coming to america'. we watched 'hercules in new york'. which is an early early arnold schwarzenegger film.. like before he was famous.. like it was a promo for his body-building celebrity-hood.. 'featuring his real voice for the first time!'. it is strangely the same film as 'coming to america'. you should probably all rent it immediately.
blind date closed with ninety participants. which is frankly incredible.
dan has asked me to play at the after party, but i'm not sure the music i've been playing on this tour is party-time enough for it. that and i've also been rather enjoying just spending time here
without playing my songs.

chris, at dan's request, invented a new drink with the very little booze these mostly-non-drinkers had in the flat. shapricot. THE APRICOT BRANDY MUST BE POURED FIRST. and then sherry. it is stomach-turning.
ly delicious.
no.

worked at the forest again this morning with ryan from connecticut and lis from australia.

now i'll try to find a laundromat and not stink so bad.

edinburgh again.

2006-12-04T09:02:00.000-08:00

(nighttime 031206)
the wind was whipping (whip! whip!) in the wet darkness as I fought across the north bridge and invariably onto the south. (fight! fight!) the wind, i mean. was what I was fighting. (fight! fight!) Me I was still shaking off shallow busdreams. A tall handsome strangeress crossed toward me in the night. (strange! strange!) I wished suddenly that I had any idea what a whooporwhill sounded like.
I almost wanted to stay another day in manchester, but the moon is full here and the return, green. People sigh when I ask how long they've lived here, as if they were playfully ashamed. One could easily be forgiven, though, for whiling away decades at a time.
(while! while!)

(early eveningtime 041206)
today I worked at the forest for the first time. kept myself mostly to the dish-pit and thought about the half and half. I made a bunch of drinks, though, too.. and then went to help dan and saskia decorate for the blind date fundraiser for the afghan schools. Saskia shoo'd me off promptly at four, though, when she realized that the person up with whom I'd been set was supposed to arrive to help out just then. "Do Not Talk To Anyone On Your Way Out." They do not take their blind-dates-for-charity lightly here. Shannon from the forest has offered to come along as a chaperone.

arrived back in town at 1930 last night and called yaz's flat just in time to catch them before they were heading out to the farm. They asked me to wait for them at the forest and I was glad for the opportunity to cross the bridge at night. I was thinking of it being all dark and looking out over the below, but of course it's a city street as well as a bridge, and lit up like a football stadium. I arrived at the forest at almost the same time as them. Robin was driving. Robin is, as I understand it, the driving force behind the afghan schools project. He is neat.

I'm gonna go walk around.

edinburghmanchester

2006-12-03T02:20:00.000-08:00

woke up in manchester this morning with a lot of the street signs and
traffic signals sort of haphazardly rearranged. we walked home
through it last night. the wind! jesus.
the show at the basement was a lot of fun.. a nice instance of me
managing not to get flustered and to still play well even though
everything sounded like awful mud. I met some really nice people and
afterward we went to a party beneath this mill which has been
converted into artist studios. oh and the levenshulme bike orchestra
blew me the hell away even with a performance they'd rather not
remember.
yesterday I spent a good near seven hours on the bus getting here.
today i will spend a good near nine on the way back. it's just as
well.. only got about four hours of sleep.. this way i can cramp
myself up in those tiny seats.
it took a while longer to find the bus station this morning than it
would have. on account of all those rearranged signs and signals.
which is why i mentioned it, i guess.

the show at henry's cellar bar the other night went beautifully. les
infantes bastardes (ssssppppelling?) were really wonderfully over the
top and nicely unpredictable. eagleowl were beautiful as well.
i think i stayed out late that night, too.

and going to dan's new farmhouse. spending the evening by the fire
with his close people. i'll head back there and walk around by edge
of the esk river some more. these low hanging trees.

tomorrow i work my first shift at the forest!

hope all's well,
-b.

p.s. - oh yeah! the show at the forest was great too.. only i liked
the set dan and i played together better than my own!

bussssride f'glasgae t'edinburgh

2006-11-29T10:06:00.000-08:00

arrived in edinburgh at around 1 this afternoon.. managed to impress
myself once more by finding my way to the forest cafe on foot. the
forest cafe. is so great. all volunteer staff.. i think that after
my show on the second in manchester, i'll probably train or bus back
upward to edinburgh and spend the next four or five days working there
and recording some soundtracks for some animations with dan.
last night's show was.. ahem.. once again.. a little clumsy. or i
dunno how to put it. jim and lesley were both so wonderful and then
when i played (at least for me) there was a bit of a visceral sense of
these-are-weird-noises-and-uncomfortable-lyrics-to-be-foisting-upon-people-just-now.
which. i dunno. i suppose. is bound to happen from time to time.
i could go into further detail, but it might be a pretty pointless
indulgence.
regardless, it was wonderful to finally get to meet jim. i tried to
encourage him to hit me up for a show in portland, but i'm not sure if
he'll do it. we can hope.
i met a really nice dude named julian who is gonna show me some remixes, too.
thanks tchai ovna. you are a rad place.

afterward i walked all the way across town to find mono.. before i
could actually locate it, though, i saw eva and michael sitting
outside and across the street from it. i think tom was the only
person who knew i was going to be there, so it was sort of a nice
one-sided surprise to get to witness. especially nick. they were
kind enough to share their venue-provided food with me.. i realized it
had been nearly days since i'd had any fruit and i think i managed to
get down a couple of apples and bananas..
we all laughed a lot and i got to see most of bardo pond's set. nick
and tom told me about playing in a church from 1050 in italy.. almost
missing and missing flights.. etc.
laura was there too and we walked back to the hostel together.
ate cola flavored fizzy candy from the venue on the way. that's
probably how i got to the point of feeling a bit more talkative than i
usually like to feel. it was fine. it was a good night. i slept
really well after having walked so much while carrying all my
belongings.

dan found me late in the afternoon.. i'd walked around edinburgh just
a little.. it's so different from glasgow!.. we went on a few
errands.. he does so much! i'm excited to get to do some of it as
well.
and now i'm at his house. we had tea. and oat cakes and cheese and
'strong steven' which is a spicy sauce from hungary. i think that's
right.

later we'll play at the forest.

glasgow night 1 morning 1

2006-11-27T04:48:00.000-08:00

both of my pens ran out of ink yesterday. within an hour of one
another. i was amazed. i suppose it is nice to be so easily amazed.

have found approximately one functional payphone in glasgow thus far.
could not manage to coordinate a phonecall to edinburgh with the
proper timing, so i'll stick around these parts for the next few days.
jackie-o is playing the same night as me here, but at a different
place.. i imagine mine will be a fairly early bit of business, so i'm
gonna see if i can get over there to see them play and say hello to
nick and tom.

Laura and I stayed up late playing dice (one and two pence) with the
Latvians last night. Evidently wearing a pink cowboy hat makes you
roll a lot of sixes. I was on the losing end of this discovery.

Allison told me about the cemetary on the hill. I'll find it today
and look out a long way. it has a different name, but I can only call
to mind 'necronomicon', and i'm about positive it's not lovecraft or
armies of darkness. (edit: "necropolis")

dropped off fliers at tchai ovna this morning. found a little used
bookstore right nextdoor. gonna see if i can trade in the book i
brought and finished. Paul Auster: The New York Trilogy. It was so
good. Thanks Becca. Now it'll live with someone in Glasgow.

2006-11-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

come to think of it, i don't know how i could have claimed the literal
third degree.
unless he had burned me. with lasers. let's stick with proverbial.

I must remember that 2.40£ is not a cheap price for a beer. jesus.

PARIS-->GLASGOW

2006-11-26T14:25:00.000-08:00

my dream in paris last night this morning: kept hearing that john
prine song "hello in there".. was in a war, an old war, a soldier kept
singing it after he got shot in the head. blood pouring out of his
helmet, i kept waiting for him to stop and it seemed like he was
slowing down, but i couldn't tell.. like when you're looking for
something and can't be certain whether or not you're forcing its
perception. and another song. a woman's voice. breathy and almost
girlish. singing "mail me your name". two generals facing off
against one another, fists raised, a cigarette in each hand, lit at
both ends. my forefingers jammed beneath his jaw a moment before.
got these weird fits all through paris, hard to swim to the surfaces
of them, try to keep them private mostly, but here they are published
vaguely in LCD before yr eyes. embarrassment is my truth detector.

was given the proverbial and literal third degree in prestwick
airport. ask a lot of questions, specific questions addressing vague
plans. go sit down at the back of the queu and wait for him to think
of more questions again. honestly, i think it was his first day on
the job, he kept asking the next agent over. my heart was beating in
my throat nonetheless. for an innocent person. i just wanted to make
sure i got to scotland, really.

portland, you will shit yourself over tchai ovna. a tea fucking
house. in an alley in an alley in a door behind a porch which you'll
probably only see on your way out if you're me. i'll play there on
tuesday.

oh and I met Laura, who happens to be staying in the same hostel as I
am (bluesky) and who happened to go to Lewis and Clark in Portland and
happens to know those lewis and clark kids I love so well.. jessica
and jessica and mason.. we quit and hoofbeats and such.. she'll be
working here for a while. in glasgow, i mean.

drew a flier for my scotland shows off of a photo from that david
attenborough book 'life on earth'... a weasel with mouseprey.
mouselips delivering pertinent information.

may or may not head toward edinburgh tomorrow.. dan could use some
help moving out to his new farmhouse in the country and this would
afford me an excellent opportunity to prove myself useful amid all
this hospitality. it would also probably just be nice to see his new
place. and his old place. and the transition between the two of
them. and also to meet him. and his people.
it might be nice to explore glasgow a bit more, too, though.

paris ffffast food via american keyboard

2006-11-25T03:05:00.000-08:00

in an unnamed american fast food restaurant taking advantage of their
free wifi on kathryn's american laptop.
walked around a lot yesterday and didn't get very far with my level of
french-speaking. i shut the hell up, though, and found some beautiful
areas and narrow streets and waterfronts.
after school, kathryn and I assembled and decorated her new christmas
tree, and her friend angela brought over a burned cd of christmas
music as well.
i slept so hard last night.
i think i stayed asleep for ten hours.
i dreamed that i lived in the subway in New York and that it was
flooding, but my room stayed dry.
above ground, though, the streets were too narrow for cars and the
buildings were light colored like they are here.

oh oh. announcement:
FIRST SHOW IN GLASGOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
that's the one at macsorley's on the 27th.
i'm totally sorry and i don't fully understand the situation, but it
has evidently fallen through.
this means that it's likely that i'll be wandering around glasgow
fairly aimlessly for the evening of the 26th, all day the 27th, and
the first half of the 28th. if you wanna show me any ropes, just drop
an email or something. trying to figure out where i'm gonna stay..
seems like there are a few hostels, so that's my business for the next
little bit here in aforementioned unnamed american fast food
restaurant with free wifi in the 17th arrondisement.

dqnkq berlin, pqris night 1 qnd dqy 0.5

2006-11-24T02:13:00.000-08:00

keyboqrds in pqris qre even more cruciqlly reqrrqnged thqn the ones in
berlin! its reqlly sort of exciting not to hqve my own co,puter qlong
zith me.. these updqtes hqve the sort of confused quthenticity zhich
cqn only be cqptured by q totql lqck of fqmiliqrity zith q different
set of keys qnd q commitment to still qttempting to churn out zords qt
q fqst enough rqte to cqpture the ideqs behind them.
even so, the "m" key hqs been replqced by q comma, though, qnd i feel
thqt this is just too much to be qble to skim pqst; so i'm mqking the
extrq effort.

finql night in berlin felt q little clumsy to me:: schokolqden is such
q bequtiful venue; though: jesus:: it used to be q chocolqte fqctory
q long long time ago; but i wqs qlso mqde privy to some of its uglier
uses in recent times.. finqlly got to meet vince qnd his bqndmqtes qs
well qs sarah.. she showed me the room upstqirs from the venue zhere
I zould be stqying.
dqvid qnd polqroid both plqyed lovely sets, qlthough I think we mqy
hqve stqrted the show q bit lqte; becquse by the time it wqs m,y turn
to plqy; there were only ten minutes left before qll music wqs
supposed to be finished;; they sqid they could extend it q little bit;
but i plqyed q pretty insqnely short qnd rushed set nonetheless
becquse i didnùt wqnt to tqke qdvqntqge of qnyoneùs good grqces:

rqf wqs there qgqin qnd it wqs greqt to hqng out qnd tqlk with him::
delphine from the cqfe showed up qs well! so we qll tqlked q lot; i
met rqf's friend hannes, had some white wine:: delphine insisted thqt
we see more of berlin;, but one of her fqvorite plqces wqs suddenly
missing: no shit: suddenly missing:

got to bed lqte. got to wqking eqrly: not reqlly eqrly: just
eqrlier thqn iùd reqlly hqve liked to get to wqking:
so tired qt the qirport thqt my qutomqtic "look away" response didnùt
seem to be functioning properly. iùd be stqring off into spqce:: q
spqce which just hqppened to include q personùs fqce:: qnd reqlize
suddenly thqt theyùd been holding my gqze for neqrly ten seconds.
good thing thqt the pqrisiqns seem to be pretty heqvy stqrers.
kqthryn informed me of this lqst night:
"pqrisiqns qre stqrers."

we met under the qrc de triomph qt just qbout six thirty: the plqn
hqd been closer to six; qnd iùd shown up relqtively on time.. there
was q big ceremony going on.. i felt dumb for not knowing whqt it wqs,
but wqtched quietly until q guqrd finqlly grew suspicious of me qnd
qpproqched to hqve q little chqt: he ended up being very kind qnd we
tqlked for the next few minutes until kqthryn finqlly showed:
we hqd pqstq, bqnqnqs, breqd qnd chocolqte for thqnksgiving dinner,
qnd i wqs so glqd to be in the compqny of someone so fqmiliqr when i
wqs so tired: we tqlked q lot qnd cqught up:: i hqve known kqthryn
since high school qnd consider her to be qmong the humqns i know the
most closely:
we went to bed eqrly: we crqcked up q lot:

so now kqthrynùs in school until qround five qnd iùm on my own to
wqnder qround pqris: qlreqdy qdmired the pqntheon:: hqd espresso qnd
q croissqnt neqrby:: will go see some gqrdens:: kqthryn hqs been
trying to convince me to tqke one of those tour buses which cost like
16€, but i donùt think i cqn bring myself to do it: i think i sort of
prefer just wqndering qround qnyhow:: qnd besides; delphine qnd q few
other berliners wrote down some ideqs of things i might look into
whilst here:

hey: thqnks so much to everyone who hqs been writing to me while i qm
out qnd qbout like this:: itùs delightful to receive these letters qnd
iùm sorry thqt i reqlly cqnùt offer much in terms of responses qt the
moment; i miss you, though, friends: txt msgs; too:: i turn my phone
on once per dqy, qnd finding such nice messqges is so greqt:

qight: gonnq go wqlk qround qnd hope it doesnùt decide to stqrt
pouring down rqin:

qlso: berlin is so cheqp! pqris is so expensive!
love,
b.

berlin 1.5

2006-11-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

spent most of the daz zesterdaz wandering around a certain area of
berlin.. trzing to staz within radius of HotelBar, but also trzing to
staz out of the rain.
made some photocopies of a flier for the show and handed a few out in
mz best impersonation of #charming sheepishness#.
itäs so cheap to eat here! falafel is consistentlz 2€ or less! i
drank a lot of tea, too.. but sort of dreaded the seeming
inevitabilitz that i would lose mz voice before the nightäs show.
spent much of the daz dodging from cafe to cafe.. ordering tea,
writing, reading, drawing, trzing to gauge at what point i was wearing
out mz welcome, and then heading back out into the rain again. had a
few pleasant conversations with people which almost alwazs began with
some form of directional inquirz.
listen. this kezboard thing. itäs here to staz, friends. get used to it.
nobodz was at the hotelbar until 8pm or so.. i finallz almost finished
"new zork trilogz" bz paul auster.. itäs so fucking good.
headed down to the venue, though, once it was open.. met david (with
whom i will be plazing tonight) and did an awkward soundcheck. when I
finished, Raf from getimeatim and goldenhours walks up and iäm so
surprised and overjozed to see a familiar face that i assault the hell
out of him with hughter. that is hugs.
so heäs living in berlin at the moment, and saw a listing for mz show
in a local paper! we talked a whole bunch.. me constantlz monitoring
mzself because i figured mz voice would disappear at anz second.
seriouslz.. when it happens, it happens suddenlz and completelz. itäs
like trzing to control the tones of a busted AM radio with a
disembodied schoolbus steering wheel. i had tried hitting some notes
earlier in the daz and got that feeling about it.
i couldnät plaz until last, either. both kittz solaris and brian of
the bedroom band, though, happened to have throatdrugs on them, so i
numbed mzself up nicelz with those and had some complimentarz red wine
on top of it. listen. throatdrugs like candz coughdrop kinda stuff.
not like.. i dunno.. oxzcontin. which is not reallz a throatdrug.
ok.
so i plazed and mz voice worked just fine! it sounded great! i drank
some coffee beforehand and even managed to effectivelz beg for a place
to sleep. didnät get to plaz the newest song "predictions".. because
i have to sing so high and figured iäd best not risk it.. but finished
with a new one called "how the 'tuberance" and it sounded reallz
beautiful to me.
a girl named jaime with a thoroughlz american accent came up and
talked to me about mz "portland suitcase".. evidentlz all bands from
portland have suitcases which make inexplicable noises. i suppose i
am no exception! it was a nice waz to be generaliyed. she said that
she had a reallz big place with plentz of sleeping space and that i#d
be welcome to spend the night there, but that we had to hurrz because
the last train was about to leave.
i packed up in a hurrz and managed not to lose anz parts or pieces..
we hit the trainstation, though, just after that last train left. we
got a cab. she lives in a part of town called.. oh hell.. kr..
nevermind. itäs gone for me. iäll remember it later. it means
something about the cross. her place is incredible. she lives with
some of the guzs from kings of convenience and thez have a reallz nice
living room studio set up with drums and everzthing! the floor below
them is a mosque and the floor below that is a.. um.. martial arts
studio? jesus, i hope thatäs right, or else iäm misremembering
something in a sort of offensive waz, i imagine. iäll ask her about
it and confess later.
we get in and drop mz stuff off.
we walk to a nearbz bar and she buzs me a huge bottle of beer.
she is from sanfrancisco. mazbe bakersfield before that?
the bar is called wiener blut. which is blood sausage, i think. iäm
not reallz sure.
she loves chris johanson paintings and is totallz stoked about the
nicolai wallner experience. SO AM I SO AM I SO AM I SO AM I.
we sit and talk for along time and then go back to her place and have
tea and toast and cheese and sausage and jam. thez donät refrigerate
their eggs here! or their cheese! adventure around everz corner, i
tell zou.

we go to sleep. man. she pulled apart her mattress and we each took
a piece of it. i slept so thoroughlz. it was almost four when we hit
the haz. managed to be asleep until around eleven and then we had to
get up and rush around, because she has to figure out her visa before
she heads to ireland for a vacation soon.. she has to figure out if
she has to get married or anzthing.
found mz waz across town to a record store called Dense, which Raf and
I had agreed to meet at. walked back and forth across the street for
nearlz twentz minutes before someone knew where it was and pointed at
it. their sign sticks out perpendicular to the building, so zou canät
see it from the other side. it was a nice place. the guz let me put
some fliers for tonightäs show on the floor. then he let me consign
some cds! Hez berlin! zou can buz the special tour edition (read:
unmarked CDR) of rebukes! at Dense!
we walked to a cafe he knew nearbz and had some tea and coffee. i had
both, in fact.
then currywurst!
then a vintage musical instrument store with totallz amaying stuff.
painfullz amaying.
then falafel near the oldest artsquat in berlin. that building is so beautiful.
so raf and i walked around all daz long and itäs been so nice to get
to see him here and sort of get his recentlz-acquired version of
berlin.

now iäm in this internet cafe.
spending monez in buckets.
and tomorrow, KM and I celebrate thanksgiving in Paris and I see if i
can throw together anz sort of impromptu shows there! anzbodz with
paris connections, this is zour time to shine! on mz grateful behalf!

wish m'luck on the show tonight.

s'all.

farewell denmark, greetz germanz.

2006-11-20T14:29:00.000-08:00

holy crap the bandini kvartetten record called "automaton" is so good.
daniel and james in particular are gonna love this soo much. i
listened to it while i waited until the last second in the copenhagen
airport for my flight's gate to be listed.
K and I made our way back to copenhagen after breakfast in Helsingoer
on sunday morning.
I should perhaps mention that This Keyboard In Berlin has the
positions of the z and y keys switched. for the duration of this
message, i will ignore this fact in favor of positively hilarious
results.
I think i also forgot to saz anzthing about the sickness.
i was so fucking careful. before i left, i mean. i was meticulous to
the point of obsession, and it caught me anzhow. I had a nastz fever
the night before I left, and then for mz flight, i was fortunate
enough to have a serious serious meanspirited stuffed up headcold.. i
tranquiliyed mzself with antihistamines and managed to get "sleep" on
the flights.
was feeling mostlz better for the past few nights, but i'm reallz
feeling it in mz throat todaz and am hoping against hope that i won't
lose mz voice before tomorrow.
K and I arrived back in copenhagen about about 2 in the afternoon..
tried to get in touch with Dana, but had no luck.. Chris and Jo, too..
but i think folks were pretty busy planning their respective
departures.
I did, though, get to meet K's wife Rikke, who is totally wonderful,
and after we all sat around talking for quite a while, we hit up a
nearby market so that we could prepare a "highly traditional" danish
meal.. it was pretty amazing meatballs, potatoes, and a carrot and
apple slaw of some sort. We all talked a lot more and then K and I
listened to tons and tons of records.
We all bid farewell sort of early this morning.. we have lots of
awesome plans for future long-distance collaboration and even the
possibility of a scandinavian tour sometime in the future. I donät
know If i mentioned how great Ks set was the other night at the
college.
hey that z and y thing got old reallz fast.
evidently the Danes have their right wing party as well. But im
repeatedly informed that their ideals more closely resemble moderate
leftwing american policies. bodes well.
K and I both freaked out about Ariel Pink. Him for the first time.
Me again and again and again.
I learned this common danish word which more or less means "emo". it
is weltschmertz. it is something which a person is filled up with.
got into berlin after dark. checked into my hostel after riding the
train into the town center... 18 euro isnt all that steep.. ive got a
gamble for tomorrow, though.. if i stay another night, i get it for
onlz 14 euro.. but i have to let them know by 11am.. im sort of hoping
that someone at the show might have a floor for me to crash on,
though.. so i think iäm gonna cast my lot in for that one and if it
comes up against me, ill just hoof back to the hostel and pony up some
dough. come through for me berlin! offer your floors!
im pretty tired at this point, and the lounge of this hostel is a lot
like a bar. but with huez lewis plazing. man.
i met a nice girl on the train who helped me figure out where my stop was.
and the girl working the door at hotelbar too. she was nice as well.
those are mz acquaintances in berlin thus far.

jesus. these posts are always a lot more intriguing and articulate
before i get a chance to sit down at a public computer with an
unfamiliar kezboard to trz to type them.
rest assured that the content upon which they are meant to report is
plenty captivating.

the walk signals in berlin are short men with widebrimmed hats and
long hasty strides.
i dont know why we dont have green walk signals in the USA. id never
have thought of it before, either, though.

i drew a nice flier for the shows at hotelbar and schokoladen. i
dunno if ill be able to scan it while iäm here, but iäll work on it.

sleeeeeelelelleleleeeeeeeeeeeepppppppppppp

kobenhavn 2 and helsingor 1

2006-11-19T03:37:00.001-08:00

show at the gallery was really nice.

Tom and I played through sorta blown speakers (we might have done well to suspect them during the previous night's dodgy experiments) but managed to make some beautiful sounds nonetheless. There was a little guitar someone found in the trash. Not little. Trashed. Nylon strings, but only three or four. Tom wrote our new band name on it. "Mind Blowing". And chris played it along with us and dogs barking.

We all went to a bar. Chris and Jo and Bob and Christopher and Dana all DJ'd and tequila and danish beer were furnished kindly and unabashedly. You know. I got to that point. And Tom and Dana got there at a pretty similar time.

And we tried to get a cab, but we were doing something wrong. Nobody was stopping.

And then this black car with two guys in it stopped. They said they'd give us a ride. Tom said he'd heard of this illegal 'black taxi' service before. They were pretty nice and only took 60dkk.

Some food. Some sleep. Some minor misery in the morning.

I caught up with K walking down Njalsgade.. I was so worried that he'd be on the other side of the street that I didn't see him approaching until he was only a few meters away. He'd been doing the same thing.

We went to his place and drank coffee and listened to records.. planned our approach for the evening at International People's College.

I'm summarizing. This will happen. back and forth in extent of detail.. not so much time on the computer here..

the trainride was nice. public transportation is comfortable here.

We got to the train station in Helsingoer at the same time as Nikolaj (?) and then walked to the college.

Nikolaj has a good deadpan. he's a funny dude.

It was cultural evening for Western Europe and North America. US beer and food was represented by Budweiser, PB&J, and s'mores. Superman was created by a canadian. 390,000 residents of the UK identify their religion as JEDI. (I think it's in the flying-spaghetti-monster way).

The night was unpredictable and rad.. the show was great and it was younger nicolai's birthday.

gotta go yo.

day one and a half - london countryside looks like portland, copenhagen is kind.

2006-11-17T04:26:00.000-08:00

arrived in london about an hour late and was worried about navigating
to stansted. thought i was getting into buying a trainpass, but
realized too late that i was actually shooting for a much more
expensive bus ticket. I made it on time, though.
Both glad and disappointed by my decision to bring only 'tour
editions' of the "rebukes!" record.. I did totally get hassled by a
customs agent in Heathrow. It was weird. He didn't catch me until
after I'd gone through normal customs, but then stopped me and asked
what I'd be doing in England.
"I'm just passing through today. On my way to Copenhagen"
"bit of busking, then?" (pointing at my guitar case)
"no, i just like to have a guitar along."
he didn't believe me at all.
"what do you do in the states, then?"
"i'm a projectionist"
"what's that, then? design?"
"no, like when you go see a film, i project it onto the screen so you
can watch it?"
"what's that then?"
pause pause pause.
"i'm not sure i understand what you're asking. i'm a projectionist.
i project films onto screens."
"alright, then. enjoy your traveling."
i felt myself get all nervous and tense.

despite my best efforts on the flight to copenhagen, i fell asleep. i
drank coffee. i was drawing, and passing out while i was drawing.
your vision gets all dark and gravelly. finally i put my head down.
woke up a while later and listened to some brainwave synchronizations
i made a few months ago. i don't really know if it helped.

got into copenhagen and impressed the hell out of myself by actually
using public transportation to get from the airport to where i needed
to be. i made myself this little book with maps and stuff and
addresses, so that even if i don't speak the language, i can still be
ingratiatingly polite and people are generally eagerly helpful.
did manage to get on the wrong 40 bus, and had to jump off and sprint
to the one going the opposite direction, but once again, people were
very understanding.
it took me forever to find the gallery.
i had to pee so bad. jesus. i didn't want my introduction to
copenhagen to involve an arrest for public urination, particularly,
either.

the gallery is beautiful.
tom showed up shortly after i did and we spent a while sitting around
eating and resting. tried to set up the (evidently broken) PA. I
think there'll be a new one there this afternoon.
Chris and / or Nicolai are putting us up in these comfortable hotel
rooms. Tom and I walked across the bridge at about ten pm and managed
to get only a little bit lost on the way. we got checked in and
decided to come down for a whiskey and coke and to discuss our
approach to the show for today. i think we're gonna play together,
sort of alternate songs and improvisations.. jackie ox motherfucker..
har.
dana showed up too! and we all sat around for a lot longer than that.
my eyes were spinning when the norwegian guy finally started taunting
us about kelly clarkson's crushing loss to one of his friends in the
World Idol series which we evidently don't get in the USA.

i slept hard. i woke up hard and thought i wouldn't get anymore
sleep. like what eric was saying about only being able to sleep for 4
hours at a time.. but i fell back asleep hard again and almost missed
our plan to take advantage of the free continental breakfast.

and then we went to christiania.

i have used up my fifteen minutes in the hotel lobby, though. i'll
maybe write some more later.

spoecn heartz

2006-11-10T09:49:00.001-08:00

wednesday night's show was totally wonderful. Tractor Operator and Testface both played beautiful sets, and Das Llamas were a nice surprise from Seattle, too. My set couldn't have possibly gone any better (except for the contact mic on my guitar sliding around and making crazy bassssss drones which were kind of neat anyhow) and it made me feel even more excited to go play a bunch of shows in europe.

scrambling to tie up loose ends. will update pretty frequently if possible.

last item: lest I should fail to drive it far enough into the ground.

2006-10-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

received the new Mattress record in the mail today, and it destroys. all post-apocalyptic cr78s and rex's slapped-back, ring-modulated desert baritone lamenting the songs about the bad times. get it from james' belowpdx label. Makes me miss portland even more. I'ma be home soon.

(Oh yeah, and I think Mattress and Bird Costumes are embarking on their northestwestest tour with a show in portland tonight.. maybe we'll be playing at the same time! shows-bros coast-to-coast!)

My mom has a new story up about computer viruses, native american folklore, dragons, post-apoctalyptic survival, and drown't bandits. She even says a few cusses! (You love cusses.)

Yoni's gonna come live here for a couple months, and we'll get to do some fun recording in the basement of the house where he's renting a room. Sounds like he's also gonna send me some pants Ryan and Kyla (pdx must miss you, but chicago must love you) didn't want anymore from their old house / his new house in pdx! Seriously. It is hard to find pants in NYC for less than $100,000.00. Some nice kids at the University of Idaho have invited me to come play in the springtime, and I'm hoping the timing will work out right so as like Yoni can come along, too.

and finally:
rad show tonight!

2006-09-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

bye, diamond.
loved and missed dearly.

meets europe:

2006-09-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

looks to be around like so as this:

» 17 nov: copenhagen, denmark: Galleri Nicolai Wallner
» 18 nov: Helsingør, denmark: International People's College
» 21 nov: berlin: HotelBar
» 22 nov: berlin: Schokoladen
» 23, 24, 25 nov: paris: ??
» 27 nov: glasgow: Macsorley's
» 28 nov: glasgow: Tchai Ovna
» 29 nov: edinburgh: The Forest cafe
» 30 nov: edinburgh: Henry's Cellar Bar
» 2 dec: manchester: Klondyke Club
» 4, 5, 6, 7 dec: cardiff, bristol, london: ??

It'll be further updated as stuffs get figured out.

If anyone knows people who like to set up shows in any of these places, or even just nearby places on the southbound Edinburgh to London meander, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Eat Records w/ Ghost To Falco

2006-08-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

cyclone and mist'ng sign-buttons

2006-08-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

Steve from goodbye blue monday has kindly set up a show on october 12th along with winter family. I'll draw something nice for it soon.

In the meantime, i've had the pleasure of a delightful visit (CONEY ISLAND CYCCCLONE!) from Eric Ghost To Falco over the past couple of days, and he'll be playing a show in bushwick at the aforementioned Goodbye Blue Monday along with Zachary Cale and Suckers on Wednesday, August 23rd. YOU SHOULD GO!!!

Cake Shop 080806 (reannounc'd!)

2006-07-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

8pm Tuesday 080806 at Cake Shop
Zachary Cale
Harmony and Pollution
Dragging an Ox through Water

2006-07-19T23:36:00.000-07:00

I'll be playing a show at Cake Shop on August 8th with Zachary Cale, Harmony and Pollution, and possibly one other band. It'll be great awesome fun. In fact, you should come.

Or perhaps you're in Portland, Oregon. In which case you should definitely go to the Bird Costumes, Ora Cogan, Mattress, Xh show at which I would have enthusiastically played had I not abruptly sprung across the continent.
(Also, if you're there, you should probably spend a summer afternoon with a sandwich and a couple of miller high-lifes and maybe a companion at the half and half. it's another vicarious homesick thing.)

this!

2006-07-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

first NYC show came completely unexpectedly on the day the rest of my equipment arrived via UPS.
I'll recount and stuff:
Nika and I go to see some art, I get braindead-hungry from burning whatever particular proteins art-viewing seems to burn so feverishly in my head.. Nika knows about a little place between 1 and 2 on Houston called Punjabi. We search. She calls a friend. We search some more. Turns out the friend was wrong initially and it's between 1 and A. The food is delicious.
A dude walks by and I recognize him vaguely, though I cannot say from where. Everything here feels like a weird residual-recognition dream anyway, so I pretty well let it slip by. But he walks by again.
"Don't you play music?"
It's Harrison. He'd been at that totally amazing show at the copyright room in the grandma's house warehouse (Oakland, CA) back in May with Ghost Family, Western Graves, and La Dee Da. We catch up for a second and he invites me to play a show "tonight". It turns out to be the art auction benefit for the Miss Rockaway Armada: a totally amazing project whose existence makes me feel strangely and suddenly very much at home and enthusiastic to be here. The auction is really neat... so much beautiful art and music.. And then I make a nice girl named Erica ecstatically happy by misrecognizing her as her sister Kendra who plays in Western Graves and who I met at the same show as Harrison.

Later on, we go to a bar in Greenpoint (edit: Wmsbrg). A time comes for me to pee. There is a line and I am standing in it. A girl who is dancing bumps into me and cheerfully apologizes. She says that they are"bringing it North Carolina style." I say it seems like a good way to bring it. She says they have a band. They are playing at Cake Shop tomorrow. I ask what they're called.
"Hope and Anchor".
Jessica Jones and I made the poster for their show together in Portland a week before I left. They are some of Jones' most special people. We talk and freak out for a while and then I remember how it is totally past the time for me to be overdue to pee. They wanna play a show together while I'm in NYC and Jones is in TN.

I don't know how my world got so small and so kind, but I am grateful as hell.

notice.

2006-06-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

Plans have changed.

I may as well be direct about it:

I've never loved any placetime more than portland2006 or felt more engaged and humbled by the level of insight in the music and art going on around me.
which makes it nigh unexplainable that I've decided to accept an offer to relocate my place of occupation from here to here for the next six months.

So there you go. It's a projectionist job at a little theatre. It pays above-decently and I'll have a lot of time to explore and do (hopefully) fun shit with (hopefully) fun people before I return to pdx with gold fronts.

I leave on the first.

Monday night is my last portland show for prolly quite a while.

love,
-b.

p.s. - I'ma miss everyone in this place so fucking much, but also special thanks to daniel, bennett, jeff, robin, jevon, and devin for absorbing what (hopefully) little slack I have tried-not-to-but-inevitably-left in the aftermath of this decision.

p.p.s. - come visit!

2006-06-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

I saw so much good music last week. Thanks to Dead/Bird, Glamorous Pat, Smegma, Owl Dudes, Me Con, ...Worms, Joe V.A., BARR, Coughs, Dynasty, and Level Anchorage for being incredible.

Everybody come to the Oh Sees Show on thursday, ok!?

yr voice was a distant warble.

2006-05-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

the california 'jaunt' was fun as goddamn.
thanks to ghost family, western graves, la-dee-da, stout is a closet homosexual, the come-live-with-me jazz band, zack, rosie, tim, winston, hiram, emily, darah, pergolesi, and copyright for being totally kind and hospitable and welcoming while I was out there.

I drove long distances and listened to lots of music and ate cashews and talked to nice people. I drank coffee. I ate potatoes. I also listened to 'Heart of Darkness'. I read it when I was seventeen. I'm glad I listened to it instead of reading it this time. It's so good just the same.

coulda played another show on saturday with ghost family, but I jumped the gun and started driving north too early.. oh well.. next time.

I have fun shows coming up.. check the section up above.. a benefit for the back to back cafe, a fun and crazy eugene show, a show with Oh Sees.. which is John Dwyer's band.. who has played some of my favorite music in the world over the years.. etc. etc.

2006-05-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

hey whoa, sorry about my failure to appear at the PSU campus GOTV block party thing.. my dear sweet car broke the hell down in eugene as soon as I rolled into town for the campbell club show. Which was great, by the way. Shit, you gotta hear Lusty Leaf. So anyway, I got it fixed, and on the cheap, but couldn't make it back to PDX in time for that afternoon thingy. Vote. ok?

I'm playing at Valentine's tonight with Sic Alps. It's gonna be really good.

2006-05-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

the 05(18-20)06 california jaunt is a reality.
Thursday the 18th will be happening in a warehouse in Oakland with Western Graves, Ghost Family, and probably one more.. exact addresses as they materialize..
Friday the 19th will be at Caffe Pergolesi in Santa Cruz with There Is No I In Team Decepticon.
Saturday is still up in the air, but might well present itself as another opportunity to play with ghost family.

Also, I'll be in eugene on Thursday the eleventh at the Campbell club with Lusty Leaf and then back in PDX at Valentine's on the 13th with Sic Alps from San Francisco. Who sound totally amazing, by the way.. you should come.

the inner view

2006-05-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

so the other day, I drank myself into a caffeine psychosis, and then Chris, his dog Raisin, and I sat down for a good three hours and hammered out the raw and final materials of what will comprise the very first dragging an ox interview. It's all handwritten and will appear in NYC's Zing Magazine. I don't know when. But be on the lookout for it, ok?

Also.. I'm hastily setting up a coupla california shows for mid-May at the same time as I'm calculated-ily setting up some california shows for mid-August with Owl Dudes. I will be there sooner than you think!

clntstshw

2006-04-28T00:22:00.000-07:00

the show with voltage was neat. I set up in a dark corner at the back of the clinton street theatre.. there weren't many people there, so being somewhere so cramped and narrow made it feel populated.. played a 'last song' first to freak myself out and it got me just right to play really well. Afterward, Todd and I talked a whole bunch and I'm gonna buy one of his synthesizer kits once he's satisfied with the instructions. The chevron set was fun, too.
Thanks to everyone who came. Playing at the end of that hall pointed toward the outside while the sun went down was really nice. My shit is still broken, so I was using a mixer and a crappy practice amp, and I think it actually sounded pretty great for that context. I may simplify in that fashion for a while.

exlance!

2006-04-22T01:35:00.000-07:00

Lewis and Clark show was good fun. Thanks to Colleen for putting it on and being hospitable and kind as all get-out.
After that I tried to get over see Chuck's band play, but missed them by a few minutes. Lots of nice people were there, though, and I got to see haiku ambulance (the party band) and ...worms both play grandly.

Today I pretty much got a new PA and we decided definitively on doing a southerlywesterly early august tour with Owl Dudes and Dragging an Ox. Expect to finally see some trumpets live!

k.st.061506

2006-04-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

hey, I got word of a fun show at the k. street theatre which I'll be playing with ...worms, jesus burger, and some experimental short films by rob tyler, matt genz, and tom blood.
It'll be june 15th and wonderful.

also: finished the first twenty five or so covers of the argumentix collab. it's called "A Prairie Elephant Remembers" and the covers are spraypaint stencils (thnx daniel for the instruxx) in black and white. It's pretty!

there's always a skate video!

2006-04-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

not really much of a way around it: last night's show at dunes was a bummer. I tried pretty hard to roll with the punches, but ultimately ended up not pulling it off very well and feeling a little disappointed about it.

apologies to the friends who had to leave when it became obvious that I was gonna be playing really late. gotta figure out how I'm gonna fix my PA after it totally fritzzzed out before I could even use it last night. It's gonna have to be a DIY fix for now, since the radiator on my car totally blew up yesterday and I'm far less capable of fixing that. I need a bike-wagon or something to get to shows in town.

The good news is that the audio is finished for the collaborative release with argumentix, and it sounds really beautiful. It's tentatively titled "A Prairie Elephant Remembers", and we're hoping to have a bunch of copies finished before the Argumentix & Dead/Bird tour starts on the 20th.

2006-04-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

I'm playing a show tonight at ACME with Nick Jaina & Tractor Operator. It'll be fun.