So yesterday I had a couple of band practice things. I was sadly reminded that I have not been doing much to practice my playing skills & even less to practice my listening skills. Hopefully soon the construction in the house will be done & I can get back in line with playing guitar without being stopped by the power being turned off & such. Anyway, the most interesting thing was at the shared practice space for The Pointless Forest the other band had up some giant chalk boards with notes about how to play there songs. I’m not sure if they are working in new members or exactly what is going on, but it was interesting to see something like that not in a college classroom. I guess maybe it makes sense for somebody with songs with a bunch of parts or whatever, but it for sure doesn’t seem very rock & roll. Then again I have a notebook to tell me how to play my own songs that I wrote & that doesn’t seem very rock & roll either.
You can now listen to the interview I did with KZSU over on ghosttrees.
Here’s a new little video from mwvm. Michael keeps cranking out content lately, I wish I was doing the same thing!
I’ve been working on the artwork for Remora‘s The Heart that Kills the past couple days & not really been feeling to happy with the results. Then last night Joe Badon who draws Built contacted me about doing some art sometime. So I handed the reigns over to him. We’ll see what happens.
Our friends over at North Pole Records have a new compilation about to come out featuring Remora, Moodring, Rollerball, Miss Massive Snowflake, OVO, & a bunch more. You should check it out (free to stream) & maybe buy it.
Monday at 10am Pacific Time an interview I did with KZSU is going to broadcast/stream.
Last Night’s Dreams:
Some girl is taking photos of me making different expressions in order to design new emoticons.
I’m casting a hex that involves me screwing two square pieces of wood together to form an eight pointed star. I’m not even sure who I am trying to hex, but I inadvertently kill Bob Hope.
I’m at a used bookstore & there’s a guy at the counter selling a complete run of Epic Illustrated. I’m wandering around waiting for them to buy them & put them on the shelves so I can buy them. I go into the bathroom & the urinals are all broken & smashed like a shitty rock club.
I go to a local comic shop & a guy I went to high school with is there & I managed to both recognize him & remember his name, but I don’t know what I would have to say to him besides, “Hey, we’re both still alive.”
I’m in the grocery store & they’re sold out of ice cream, but they do have frozen custard available.
Did an interview/podcast with Nick Marino about writing comic books, Marvel Comics history, & meeting my teenage bilogical son over on the Destruct-O-Cast.
Last night I was talking to Joe Kendrick (WNCW music director) about the idea of doing two song releases & such & if they would be viable for radio promotion (given that they’d be download only) & he said that even at WNCW they are being forced to go digital because that’s how some of the big labels are going to cut corners on promotions even though they still give better treatment to a physical release at the station. So I might start trying that a bit. I’ve been thinking about doing some EP stuff for a while.
I’ve been kind of sitting around & not getting much done lately. I don’t know why. Maybe the post tour blues stuck on top of my life changing depression? I need to get things shaped up in my head & just work in the same way I would if I had a standard job.
Last Night’s Dream:
I get cigarette from a hispanic guy outside a convenience store. It’s my first cigarette in ten years. I should’ve started smoking again years ago.
I taught a couple friends how to make mead last night. It was fun. Makes me feel like I have a skill.
I got the layouts completed (except for the digital versions) of Star #2, Built #2, & Lost Kisses September 11 Special. Still have to draw the rest of Vigilant #2 & the three issues of Lost Kisses that are scripted.
I did a podcast with Nick Marino about my guest week on Super Haters last yer. It should be up in a day or two & I’ll let you know about it.
Here’s a recent video from mwvm. The album will be available soon. Sorry for dropping the ball on the album release date.
I watched this british show that is kind of an adult (meaning plenty of swearing & some nudity) version of that show Heroes. It’s called Misfits, it’s free streaming on Hulu, if you like the first episode you’ll probably like the series.
Over the weekend the Silber Facebook Page somehow doubled its amount of fans & almost all of them are from Spanish speaking countries. Not sure what that’s about. Now it keeps telling me 800 of your fans are fans of Fanta.
I finally watched the Joy Division movie Control. I didn’t really care for it. You can read my review over on Finally Checking It Out.
Last Night’s Dream:
A friend of my father’s is out of town for an extended business trip & so his pregnant wife is staying in our house. She’s knitting some baby clothes in a combination of pink, blue, & purple that she says makes it unisex & it reminds me of my grandmother knitting & I collapse onto the floor & go into a seizure for the first time in ten years.
I look outside the kitchen window while doing the dishes & there’s a panther lounging in a branch of a dogwood tree. I want to tell someone about it, but there’s no one to tell.
I got the comics half laid out for Built #2, Star #2, & the Lost Kisses September 11 Special. Hope to finish that up soon.
I just found out about/heard this song that Joy Division totally rips off for “Interzone” which is kinda interesting. Maybe I should listen to more of this Nolan Porter guy.
I’ve been in this really weird space in my mind lately (which I guess seems normal at this point). I have been starting to eat in my room which is something that I generally dis-like because I hate the idea of the bugs associated with food eventually coming in to where I spend most of my time. But I just want to spend as much time as possible alone in the squalor of my room & I don’t know exactly why. I have an opportunity to get a day job that in a certain way seems absolutely ideal, but at the same time it means re-inventing myself in a certain way or creating an alternative persona & having less time to work on the things that are allegedly important to me.
Last Night’s Dreams:
I’m in New York at some kind of protest thing & I duck inside a Black Panther/anarchist bookstore & a book I’m thumbing through says it’s publisher is on Banbury Street in the same zip code & I write down the address on a flyer & ball it up & shove it in my jacket pocket. I walk out wandering through the city looking for the place & the address is actually a restaurant. Inside the restaurant I find myself thinking, “How can people eat more than two times a day? No wonder humans are fat.”
I have let my hair grow out into a short mohawk & I’m jumping out of an airplane for the first time in some state that doesn’t make you piggyback to do it. I’m told we’re jumping at 100,000 feet which seems impossible & I wonder if this is how I’m going to die.
I’m riding in the back of an eighteen wheeler guarding some stolen merchandise & we pull over & I’m helping load the trunks out of this truck & into another one. One of the trunks falls over & bursts open & it’s filled with fresh fish on ice. Who the fuck steals fish?
I’m praying to God to give me back my power of levitation so that I can be special again.
I’m living underground. I’m not sure if it’s a prison or the only place left that’s safe. There’s a shortage of clean water to drink & none left for hygiene. On the back of my right hand is a tattoo that seems familiar, but that I can’t quite place where I’ve seen it before.
So I heard back from a label interested in the new Remora release. Pretty excited to have that happen, but I don’t want to mention the name until things are 100% set in place. Hate to have things fall apart at the last minute.
I got in the artwork today from Joe Badon for the new issue of Built. Hopefully I’ll have that done soon.
Had a meeting with a friend about my potential new day job. It may take a month to get in, but it’s a pretty ideal job for me as far as a lot of flexibility to work while traveling & work a schedule as I see fit for being able to still run Silber & do my real work. We’ll see what happens.
I just did an interview with Adam of KZSU (Stanford radio station) about Silber & Remora & the state of college radio. I’ll let you know when it’s going to air & all that stuff.
I’m planning on having a set of special blog entries soon of “Lost Kisses Daily” which is the 100 or so panels I drew of 4 panel stories while on tour. Hopefully it’s not too dark & creepy.
Here’s a funny little video summing up Breaking Bad (one of my favorite TV shows).
Okay, so as you may remember a couple weeks ago I made a Music & Comics News page for people to use. Today I made a World News & Fun News page. Autogenerating content from various sites which is a concept I’m still torn about. I tried to keep the news one balanced with stuff pretty far right & pretty far left with the hope that people can go to both places to try to discern some truth. I am getting to the point where I only have one or two ideas to add to the site & it will look like the best homespun website from 1999 ever.
Here’s the Remora site from last night. I hope you dig it.
I did an interview about Remora over at Alone Music that just went up.
I sent out a bunch of emails for the next guitarist issue of QRD. Anyone with suggestions (with contact info!) let me know.
I finished drawing the Lost Kisses September 11 Special (originally planned for last fall) & I just have to scan it in & clean it up & lay it out (that sounds like more than a “just”). Got some more work done on drawing Vigilant #2. So pretty stoked on comics for today.
Last night’s show went really weird. Electric Bird Noise was doing a drone set & the club owner was not into it & cut the power on the outlet the amp was plugged into in the middle of the set. I also had a drone set planned, but instead went with trying to play songs & I haven’t played any of my songs in months & it showed. It’s frustrating. If I’m going to be doing a lot of shows again ever, then I really should plan out three different sets to fit the vibe of wherever I’m playing – a drone set, an acoustic set, & a covers set.
Anyway, here’s some video from the Electric Bird Noise & Remora show in Wilmington on Wednesday.
Suggestions for QRD: Chris Brokaw, Jason T. Gough (Coastal), Pall Jenkins (Black Heart Procession), Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500, Luna, Dean & Britta), Nick Talbot (Gravenhurst), and above all Jeff Martin (Idaho)
So Plumerai has a new EP available for a name your own price thing over here. Below is a video of them printing up the covers for the physical version.
So over the past couple of weeks I’ve not been on the internet & it’s given me more time to think about things. Over the past three months since my grandmother died I’ve been trying to figure things out for what I want to do now that I have an opportunity & the break has helped me realize even more that the thing I want to do is to create content (art, stories, comics, music, interviews, etc.) & that spending time on the internet trying to figure out how to push my content is a waste of time compared to actually making content. Especially given the problems with not making money to buy burritos doing it anymore. So anyway, it will probably end up resulting in some major changes in the blog as far as it being less oriented towards talking daily about various business things & more of “here’s a drawing I did today” or something like that.
I have a Remora show tonight in Wilmington, NC & one Friday in Myrtle Beach. The Wilminton is going to be a droney one & I bought some harmonicas to give out to the audience for participation. Friday I am undecided on as of yet. It might be a three piece (guitar, bass, drums) or it might be the same set as tonight, I guess it depends how the show goes tonight.
Still no news on another label being interested in putting out the new Remora disc. Of the seven I contacted, two wrote me back saying no. So it is looking like it will come out on Silber eventually in the end.
Hey Brian, last week I discovered the existence of an interesting little label: Rusted Rail.
They have just released the latest Songs of Green Pheasant’s album in a hand-assembled/hand-stamped card sleeve which I ordered directly form them – by the way, this is how I found out about the label…
I thought that perhaps you might want to contact them…
info (at) rustedrail.com
or better to use: rustedrail (at) gmail.com
Peter 
GoddakkAttack 
N.
those dry erase boards in practice spaces are a good source of hilarity. Especially if it’s a jock/classic/punk rock band