single, video, kestrels

my dear friend adam hartling made a music video for me. it's around if you look hard, but it'll be promoted next week. adam was also responsible for the art to the 7". get yourself to noyes to snag a copy before they are all gone (and they will go).

the we need secrets/sea glasses split is in production. we're just sorting out the art now. it's going to be a good one.

the kestrels record finally got mastered today by JJ at golden mastering. it's a good record and i'm glad that it's finally finished. as with most things for me, it took forever. i think the wait was worth it.

union of the snake are busy as well. our first 7" is out and we're working on finishing 4 new songs for a 12" ep. we've only played a handful of shows in the two years we've been together, but it's really been coming together lately. we're flying to newfoundland in november to play 3 shows.

there's a live band for we need secrets now: jim macalpine on drums (my uots bandmate, also in the holy shroud, north of america, and vkngs), ron bates on guitar (the memories attack, homo duplex, orange glass), and chris thompson on bass (eric's trip, the memories attack, moon socket). we're going to play one show and one show only in december. it's strange because those guys were sort of heroes to me a few years ago, and now we're pals. with musicians of that caliber, the live show will be a good one.

other than that: reading beckett, watching the wire (again), running, buying guitar pedals.

purple

my first 7" is on its way back to me as part of the noyes records singles series. my dear friend adam hartling made the art based on woody allen's glasses. the single is limited to 300 copies. the first 100 are on light blue for the noyes records singles series and the other 200 are standard black. you can hear the songs at weneedsecrets.bandcamp.com. the record also comes with my first published short story called "what i was thinking when i should have been laughing" which is kind of exciting. i've always been big on liner notes, so i thought i should try to spice my own up.



next up is the split 7" with dartmouth's sea glasses. i sold garrett a modified mxr blue box two years ago and we've kind of stayed in touch since then. his side of the record is absolutely phenomenal and blows my side out of the water. my side is called "melancholy and the archive" as a tribute to my friend jonathan boulter who wrote a book of the same name. those should be mixed and finished very shortly and the record should be out sometime in september. i think we're keeping it to 200 copies on clear vinyl.

there's also an lp that's about 50% done. hoping to have that off to the presses by january first. my friend alex edkins from metz is playing guitar on it, which is super exciting for me.

the first run of yo rodeo shirts are almost all gone, as are the tapes. there are new shirts in the works and i may re-print the yo rodeo ones since they were so popular.

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i had a pretty good summer in manhattan. i got to see a few of my favorite bands and spent a lot of time at strand books.

tape

It's on the way to me from Germany. It has 6 songs and there were 60 copies made. You can get them for $5 from www.noyesrecords.com or at any Kestrels/Union of the Snake/We Need Secrets show.

I'm playing at Obsolete Records on Saturday, 16 April 2011 for Record Store Day. Come check it out.

slow summer b/w (not) everyone is evil

the art for the tape is finished and that tape should be out very soon. i added a b-side--a 25 minute instrumental called 'He Do the Police in Different Voices'. i took some field recordings walking along central park, nyc last summer and laid that overtop/underneath of some guitars. i'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

other news: i'm releasing a we need secrets seven inch as part of the noyes records singles series. it's two songs: slow summer b/w (not) everyone is evil. side 1 is guitar city with some fairly ambitious drumming and turbo rat bass. side 2 is a nod to mid 80's sonic youth. adam hartling is doing the artwork and it's about as fitting as it could be.

i played a solo show last night and played a brand new song called 'mistakes we knew we were making'. clearly a working title, but i think it went well. ('how you drown yourself is no concern of mine/but it should be/you can drown yourself/it won't mean that much to me/but i'm a liar/and you're a liar'.)

other than that: reading blanchot, auster (read my review of his latest here). leaving for vacation in 6 days. applying to the cultural studies and critical theory program at mcmaster for the fall. it's about time to get out of nova scotia.

perspective