Sunday, October 25, 2009

jacksonville







we're in jacksonville, last night we played a bbq in a warehouse with this record label called Infintesmal, keep them in mind if you ever travel this far south. they're super awesome. acutally jacksonville is super awesome.

I have always said that Tallahassee is full of trees, and Jacksonville is full of holes... but they fill them with love.
Jacksonville is shitty. dont get me wrong, it looks like a bomb fell on it... and no one took notice. But it isn't an especially old city either. the buildings are abandoned, but not condemned. Which makes it a perfect place for artists and activists to come in with little capital and buy a block to start up a bar, a bike shop, a screenprinting shop, and a custom messenger bag shop. plenty of spaces even in the downtown area for small indie record labels to get a space for recording. miles and miles of industrial land, full of warehouses that are super cheap for an all night super loud venue. next to the rail road tracks.. .and under the bridge.

(this morning)

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

no camera makes for bad company

Back on tour, which means back to blogging. I have no pictures this time as the camera jumped into the river to end its miserable existence with us. We thought we treated it well. but it jumped and we watched in horror as the bubbles rose very quickly... meaning that his little lungs and circuits were filling with water. But I'm still going to blog... its just going to be boring without pictures.

Pictures with words? What is this a book?! I came to the internet to be intertained.... (i made a new word)

So here's the update as seen in a letter to my friend Billy:

Billy,


All i do is work too!. its fun, and people call it play when you are holding an instrument. but i take it seriously too. I have too. It's awful and I have been warned that it may take the fun our of music... but we gots to make money.

So i spent the last whole week making wallets. When we are in Knoxville its not a vacation at all, we try to go hiking to get out of the house, but there is no money for anything except CDs, posters, T-shirts and fabric.

The last 3 days Chad has been helping me too. I give him the dimensions and he cuts all the fabric out. Then I do all the rest of the steps...

ironing, sewing, ironing, sewing, detailing the front, sewing, and finishing the fasteners (in that order). its quite a production line. The last day we were home we made 12 wallets, usually i can only do 4 in a day. It was awful, we were up til 4 am, I had been sitting in the same chair for 8 hours... just doing these repetitive motions. It really feels like a sweat shop those times. the disc burner as well is going non stop for 15 hours to make 150 CDs. Around 2 am i started getting like telescope vision while looking at the wallets. I'm not complaining though, it was ridiculous, but seriously, i thrive in those moments. Repetitive, meticulous, gigantic art projects (I might have been a wonderful scientist if I could do statistics and write papers like this).

when my first album came out I had this ridiculous ideal of the cover art. I wanted it to be homemade... but really classy and awesome. Simple, but with excellent composition. It was 2 trees (one for each disc) the same tree in sunset and then again in twilight. damn... i just sent you a copy of the cd but i didnt send you the first edition... I'm sorry. I meant to... i just wasnt thinking straight. When i get there I'll trade you (I still have a few left). I must have drawn, painted and spray painted the design about 100 times to get it just right before I did the actual project. Anyways... I spray painted all of 500 cardboard cd cases... with 2 panels each... 1000 panels. and Each panel had a set of 4 stencils. 4000 stencils total. And it has to dry in between each. This was when i was still in school, still working at starbucks. I lived in a house with this great big porch i made into my spray paint studio. I'd be out there listening to music with my respiator on in the heat, in the cold (since I did 2 pressings, of 250 each on in winter one in summer) just feeling like a bad ass. And no one could be out there with me or help me since i had only one respirator. It was awesome. I loved every minute of that work, because i knew i was doing something directly related to where I wanted to be... which is here.

(in a basement in greensboro full of instrumetns with a little black kitty jumping around)

Sunday, October 11, 2009

I missed you so much Sewing Machine!







We couldn't go to sleep last night when we got home, just too excited and over tired.

When we finally did manage to sleep we did so until about 1am... aaah... back on schedule.

Chad's brother Mike and his girlfriend Cady arrived late last night as well. They will be staying with us for the next week while Mike and Chad record the next album.

Have I told you about this? Well... the next Spider+Octopus release will be a double disc... (you know how I love those double discs). But it needs to be so, since Spider+Octopus isn't exactly a conventional duet... just like the name implies... its both chad and I... and seeing as we're both songwriters it seems only fit that we release the next album(s) together but with some sense of autonomy as well. We walk that fine line all the time.

I have already started frantically sewing. I made a bag last night... I'll show it to you.






On this last tour I sold out of almost everything, there are a couple things left, 2 wallets that are sorta... so so you know. Maybe I'll take a lesson from MissMelodyMaker and give them away. I like that idea.

Since I did so well with the other wallets and such I am in a full tilt production to make octopus things... I started today cutting the patterns out for 10 wallets, (5 with snaps, 5 with velcro). Its a huge endeavor, but if i can make 10 in a day thats $100. (I can't make 10 in a day, but I'm sewing as much as I can) while still relaxing and going for hikes... which reminds me... we should do that now.

But first, for documentation sake:

Vermont.

After our lovely photoshoot in New Hampshire we played at the Radio Bean in Burlington











.


Saturday, October 10, 2009

End of Tour





This is our last day, we're in Murfreesboro visiting our friends at House Pride. Which is an amazing place. A house full of really awesome warm musicians. They used to have house shows here with bands from just all over. But due to the nature of house shows... which is much like the universe in the sense that chaos eventually takes over... they are no longer hosting shows. Its still in our top 3 places to visit on tour. We always love a day to just hang out, watch tv, play video games, talk about star trek or any number of wonderful geekery, shoot arrows in the backyard, drink beer in the tree house, make marinara for many hungry mouths and today we are recording songs.

Their new project is much like our record label... except they are organized and have a recording arts degree. We're so excited to be a part of it. More on that when the times comes.

For now I have promised you (the editorial you... whoever you may be) a photo shoot. Lets rewind. I realize now that this will be the format of the tour blog... really hard core blogging in the beginning of the tour... but when exhaustion and excitement take over in the middle region (always together it seems) we'll have to finish the back story when we get home... so... lets get started. I love reminiscing:

When we last left off Chad and I had just played in Maine, we were sad to leave. But the drive was just the prettiest... ever. We planned this trip to coincide with the fall, and we had arrived.

Since all the interstates in the north pretty run north and south, we were forced to take the smaller more amazing roads from Maine through New Hampshire and into Virginia. (The prettiest 3 sister states of the whole united... besides their lovely western cousin colorado in the summer).

It all started when I had to pee so bad I was screaming at Chad. We finally found a gas station in a small town in New Hampshire. Across from which was a lovely little park.

Then I spotted a moose! We had been seeing warning signs of moose all along the road. What a perfect opportunity for our collection of animal pictures.


So, enjoy our little exploration/impromptu band photoshoot:























I love the bear.
After we said goodbye to him, we got back in the car to continue our trip, but it wasn't long until the fog rolling over the mountains forced us to turn the car around and take some more pictures.




I was so overwhelmed with love and excitement in the brisk new england air I fell in love.

Come here Chad!

(seconds before our collision)

As if that wasn't enough fall for you, the next day we would be driving through the Adirondack, a strategic move whilst planning our route. oh my you are in for a treat.