It's finished!

Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to the center ring!



I've finished the album, and here is the cover. It has been an insane month, but ten tracks were finished. I would have loved to do more (and I just may sneak one more on,) but the challenge is over. I'm pressing up a super limited run of these, which will be signed and numbered (steady boy... keep that ego in check) for distribution to friends and family. May I also add that the RPM community is fantastic. I've learned tons from their forums. Every participant that I came into contact with was amazingly constructive and friendly. I cannot wait to hear some of the other albums that were completed.

In other news, Curtains For You will be playing on the 8th of March at Sunset up in Ballard. We will also be headlining the Tractor on the 27th. If you are on the fence about which show to go to, head to the Tractor, as we would love to have a huge turnout for that show. It's been a while since a Tractor gig, and this time it will be more that Matt, Nick, and I bashing away at guitar, accordion, and ukulele. God, that was a weird show. Do-be-do, progress is continuing on our next record. We are rehearsing to just go in and record the record in a couple of days in the studio. Not that there won't be monstrous over-dubs, but not as many as last time. This record will be louder, faster, and more raucous than the last. Here is a track-list (not in order) as of last night:

Dead World
Licorice Skies
Roadtrip to Disaster
Red Red Rose
Catacombs
Small Change
The Clanging of the Masses
An as-of-yet untitled slinky pop number by Matt (Everly Bros. vs. Buddy Holly vs. Kodachrome by Paul Simon) on which I get to play bass!
Dumb Angel
Just Like That, She's Gone
An untitled song by Matt that sounds like Surf's Up by the Beach Boys

Other contenders:

Longest Day
Too Late In The Game (I think that's the title?!)
Caspar & Evelyn
Hester & Alison

It's gonna be vastly different than the last record, and will better represent what we do on stage these days. If you want a preview, there are some of these tracks up on our myspace page , which we recorded live on KEXP. Other than that, my version of Roadtrip to Disaster, Dumb Angel and Just Like That, She's Gone are on my RPM page.

Sorry I have not posted in a while, I promise that now that Feb. is over, I will be more frequent with my rambles.

All the news that's fit to print...

Howdy loyal readers (all two of you - myself included.)

Life has been busy as usual, so here's the scoop:

My sister visited Seattle this last weekend, and we had a very low-key weekend, which consisted of watching the baby and... well, watching the baby. It was great to see her, as I hardly ever get the chance to spend time with her. On a funny note, I experienced "silence in stereo", as there were two people silently glued to their laptops in the apartment at once. Usually, I'm used to "silence in mono", as Melissa is the sole lap-topper. Not that I mind people soaking up the wifi when I'm around, it's just that us desk-toppers can't get away with sitting at our computers for hours on end, as we look like we are shutting out the world. Granted, my back is to the room when I'm computering, but lap-toppers still get that vacant computer brain when they are computering. You know what I mean, right? It's those conversations that go like this:

You: Hey there, I'm having a crisis about this or that, can you help? Oh, by the way, the meaning of life is _____ . Um, the house is on fire and shit, we should get out. Would you like a snack?

Computerizer: Silence.

You: I was wondering if you noticed that elephants were trampling the grass outside. I think the carpet just grew teeth and bit me. Have you seen our flamethrower?

Computerizer: (spoken slowly) Uh huh, what was that?

You: Man, I just ate a whole jar of mayo. Have you seen my galeptigizoink?

Computerizer: (spoken even more slowly) Uh huh.


So, I experienced that in stereo. I recognize that everyone needs to be online these days, but laptops are just unfair about it. The convenience of it all is amazing, but the down-side is that when I'm on the computer, I look like I'm "doing something" and I don't want to be disturbed. While this should be true for lap-toppers, they are just lounging about and somehow my brain thinks that they are still "available" mentally. Okay, all this comes down to is that I'm jealous of laptops. I've always wanted one, but have never had one. There, I said it.

Anywhen, we caucused this weekend (as did all of the boys from Obama For You nee Curtains For You.) They moved our precinct place from one school to another, and neglected to tell us until we were at the old school place (whoa... a double entendre!) The whole affair lasted over two hours, and Annabel was PERFECT! She was stepping out in her "President Poopyhead" outfit, complete with an Obama sticker. Needless to say, the delegate split was 4 Obama and 1 Clinton. I was a bit torn before the vote, and had an issues prep-talk with Melissa on the way over to the caucus. We are both a bit miffed at Obama's civil unions but no gay-marriage stance, but we both chose Obama for other issues. Melissa was concerned that I might go McCain, as I have total and utter respect for the man, but I did my duty to the Dems and stayed in line with my party. Truth be told, I was this close to voting for McCain in 2000. Shhh, don't let that cat out of the bag. Wowzers, a West Coast Democrat who is ballsy enough to say that he almost voted Republican once. I can hear the marching hiking boots and the soft swish of fleece from the lynch mob already...

Doo-be-doo, here's a picture of Annabel that was posted on the West Seattle Blog . Photo (per usual) credited to Melissa of fine-photo fame.




Isn't she cute?

In music news, RPM was on hold due to my sister's visit, but 7 out of 10 ain't bad. I'll get it done. Curtains had a rehearsal last night where we recorded roughs of the new album. We also worked on a new song of Matt's, where I get to play bass. BASS! Huzzah, I finally get to play another instrument on stage. I've never played bass live, and I'm going to make sure to make the most of my stand-up time on stage. I move around a ton when I'm playing guitar on stage (and yes, it's been a LONG time since doing that,) but I refuse to stand up while playing piano. Nothing says "never-been-laid-mouth-breather" more than standing up to play keyboards.

Case in point, pick out the keyboard player in this line-up


Oh yeah, he's the not-so-badass one on the left. And yes, he stands the whole time he is playing on screen. GRRRRRR...

RPM Update

Well, things are going swell in recording land. I've got 6-7 tracks down (depending on how I count one song that is a medley of two really.) I set up a new myspace page for the songs. It can be found here . It feels great to be recording again. I am anxious to hear what others are doing for this challenge.

In other news, this caught my interest. I am a sucker for the X-Men, and any cartoon involving them is pretty fun. This one looks like a cross between Evolution (for looks) the movies (for some plot details), and the old '90s one (for comic-accuracy). It really looks as if the characters designed for Evolution have aged. I always liked the design for Evolution, but hated that is was basically Saved by the Bell with my favorite comic book heroes. Let's hope that it turns out differently this time. It looks great so far, and I am anxious now. Look, someone just talked about somethign remotely fanboyish online and was not negative about it! WHOA!!!