Hello! Hello! For the past few days I've been deep within the trenches of making music and working on music related projects. Oh my good-god I'm so close to finishing the new The Blow EP! I drove up to Olympia to take some stuff off of the 2" tape machine at the Dub Narcotic studio at K, which ended up being unusable with the exception of a kick drum loop. So I took that loop and recorded the last song we needed to finish over it. I played and recorded 7 drum tracks and a handful of other guitars and keyboards before Khaela "put down" the vocals. I think this might be the recording I'm most proud of making, ever. I think this EP is going to get a lot of people dancing and feeling good in their hearts. At least it does those things to me and the people I've played it for so far.. that's all I need! Khaela is coming down here to Portland on Friday and we're going to finish-finish everything by the end of the weekend, for sure. I really, really want to put a little MP3 clip of the newest song on this web site, but I'm not sure if it's cool.. I'll ask my "label bosses" and let you know.
I've updated the photos section by adding some photos of a man with a bear's head, recording with The Blow and the making of Zac's and my lofts. (Is that the correct grammar? I'm always put-off by this.) Thanks to Curt Merrill for the 5th and 6th loft pictures!
Oh man, that show last night at Meow-Meow was really fun. I loved playing half of the double-drums in Thanksgiving, and the single-drums in Mount Eerie. Thank you for coming to the show and being so nice. Thanks to Phil and Adrian for having me play in their bands. You make real good music.
Speaking of shows, I have some coming up this weekend. HERE THEY ARE Also, I'm playing some shows in the midwest in the middle of next month. I don't have any money, so if you have a secret about buying cheap plane tickets/train tickets/buss tickets.. let me know.
This morning I went to breakfast with 10 of my friends--including awesome Olympia friends I don't get to see as often as I'd like--at a place in North Portland on Killingsworth called Beaterville. Three of us were on time and waited nearly an hour for the other dudes to show up.. ut uhm.. Once everyone was there we were soon to forget that we were ever without constant awesome joking and traditional RAZZING. I love me some good breakfast vibes.
A while after that breakfast I spend a good chunk of my late-afternoon/evening today in the Lloyd Center Kinkos making 1000 double-sided cardstock copies for the new States Rights Records sampler CD titled "Own Zone." I'm pretty sure the CD has the most music you can fit on a CD under the present 80 minute limitation.. just chock-full-of exclusive tracks. The Andrew Kaffer tracks are so good, the Thanksgiving tracks are so good, the new Bobby Birdman track is so good, the Dear Nora track is so good.. ALL OF THEM! SO GOOD! The thing is, I think this CD is going to be FREE. I'm not sure how that works, since the CDs and packages themselves were not free. Maybe they're free with an order? They should cost money.. it's a really awesome compilation.
Oh.. this just reminded me of something really awful that happened today in Los Angeles, California. My buddy... my good friend.. my tour pal.. Bobby Birdman.. His laptop, iPod, cell phone and other miscellaneous items were stolen out of his can while he was surfing--randomly with Kyle Field--in Malibu. Dude! He had a WHOLE NEW ALBUM on that laptop.. no one had heard it!!! We have one track on that new compilation.. but! BUT! He also had all the live versions of his songs on that computer... UGH! We're playing shows in the midwest real soon and this happens? Real sad. Steve and I are going to hook up a donation page on the SRR site, so give whatever you can to help this dude out. He's broke and in Los Angeles giving swimming lessons to pay his rent. Dude doesn't have money to but a new laptop. This sucks. Send him your love.
i know, so very sad! i think we are going to hang out soon and have drinks.
PS> your lofts are pretttttty!
Jona! Thanks so much for the awesome ride to Olympia last week. Those new collab tracks are so awesome. It's sure to inch you closer to fame. So, I felt bad for not offering you gas money for the ride, and I remembered later how you were broke. Well I didn't have much cash but now I have some, so I'm finally getting around to buying your awesome album and the newest Bird, too. Cause that guy needs some fiscal love, man. Anyway, thanks again for your mount awesomeness. See you, dude.
Hey Jona!
Do you have a photo of your loft?